Zelig
- Woody Allen: Leonard Zelig
- Mia Farrow: Dr. Eudora Fletcher
- Sol Lomita: Martin Spirit
- Mary Louise Wilson: Ruth Zelig
- Richard Litt: Charles Koslow
- Ada Smith: Herself
- Susan Sontag: they
- Irving Howe: he himself
- Saul Bellow: he himself
- Bruno Bettelheim: he himself
Zelig is the second mockumentary of the American director Woody Allen by Woody, the unlucky. It is the eleventh film directed by New York director and provides through its technical complexity and their seemingly historical reference another milestone in the artistic work of Woody Allen's dar. Numerous newsreel footage from archive materials were elaborately processed to the figure of Leonard Zelig as a well-known figure of the 1920s leave to appear.
Action
New York at the end of the twenties. Leonard Zelig has a special property: by his uncertainty over other people, it adapts mentally and physically to suit the environment. In the vicinity of gangsters he is, for example, even the gangsters. He is world famous because of this property as a human chameleon. Among other scientists, the psychiatrist Dr. Eudora Fletcher of the case adopts. She falls in love with him and heals him short term intensive therapy. Again problematic is the situation when Zelig's past is coming increasingly in the public spotlight. There you can find former lovers and wives, people who recognize him as their dentist and many others who are now calling for recourse. He fled to Germany, where he is due to the external circumstances of the National Socialists. Eudora looks for him and makes him on the Nazi Party directly behind Hitler identified. She flees with him back to the United States, where both are celebrated as national heroes.
Reviews
- Der Spiegel, 40/1983: Woody Allen has so cleverly slipped his Zelig in the time history, that it is impossible to separate from her. Perhaps the history of the Third Reich must indeed be truly rewritten by Zelig. For the fact that Hitler was a frustrated joke teller, who snatched other than his bloody jokes about Poland is, God rest his Zelig, also new. It is because all the history not clumsy fakes, but they regarded as a footnote to Zelig's biography.
- Lexicon of international film: In style and gesture a perfect simulation of a major documentary about a person of contemporary history. A masterful satire of pathos, mendacity, authenticity posturing and sensationalism of a media- specific public, but also a cinematic essay on identity and adaptation in the modern world.
Anecdotes
- Well-known intellectuals like Susan Sontag, Saul Bellow or Bruno Bettelheim comment on the movie action to make the film seem like a real documentation.
- The film used for both black and white and color sequences, wherein the presence of recordings are always color. It was used, among other camera lenses from the twenties to create a smooth transition between the newsreel material used and the new material.
- Mae Questel singing the song composed for the film " Chameleon Days". It is also from the Woody Allen movie New York Stories known, in which she plays the mother of Woody Allen's movie character.
- " Zelig " received two Oscar nominations for best cinematography and best costume, but did not win any of the prizes.
- In the German dubbed version of the voice-over of the narrator Ulrich Wickert is - then America correspondent, who later became "Mr. Issues of the day. "
DVD Release
- Zelig. MGM Home Entertainment 2005