Zelig (1983)

Title: Zelig
Release Date: 15 July 1983
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086637/
My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

In the time it took to edit Zelig, Woody Allen filmed The Purple Rose of Cairo and Broadway Danny Rose. Being a mockumentary set in the 20's and 30's, the visual effects are so intricately woven and elemental to the storytelling in Zelig that it's no wonder it took a year to complete post. Let's remember this was before Final Cut, so the simple fact that the tricks are very rarely seen is a phenomenal feat and a testament to the talent of the technical artists working on the film.

Zelig is an allegorical representation of the same theme that pervades Woody Allen's work-("God is dead; life has no meaning; man is a lonely speck in a vast, impersonal void" - Mark Shechner). Thematically, Allen does not stride too far from his safe zone here but because he usually treats his subject so literally and openly, there is deep satisfaction found in watching Zelig. You see the content, though matured, is the same but the context is much more wildly imagined (Zelig is a man who, afraid of not fitting in with those around him, has the ability to literally change physicality and become like those he's with--when he's with Frenchmen, he becomes French; when he's near a mariachi band he becomes a mariachi). The personal preoccupations at the root of this story can easily be identified as trademark Woody Allen, but the style and treatment are new and thus we get a vastly more complex glimpse into the mind of Allen. Wildly funny as a satire and intricately complex, this is one of my favorites.

From NYTimes Original Review (by Vincent Canby)
Zelig which opens today at the Beekman Theater, is Woody Allen's triumph. It's one more demonstration that he, rather than any of his more conventional, mainstream contemporaries, is the premier American film maker of his day.