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From: Holbrook.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Zelig
Message-ID: <5222@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Sep-83 11:46:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.5222
Posted: Tue Sep 13 11:46:45 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Sep-83 08:09:29 EDT
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Date:  7 Sep 1983 1445-PDT
From: EISELT@UCI-20A
Subject: Zelig
To: movies@UCI-20A
Received: from UCI-20a by UCI; 7 Sep 83 14:49-PDT

  May I have the envelope please?  The best picture of 1983 is..."Zelig"!!
Woody Allen's latest is, for my money, the heavy favorite to take Best 
Picture at the Oscars in the Spring.  The critical acclaim "Zelig" has
been receiving is entirely deserved, as this film far outshines anything
else that has been released in 1983 (my apologies to all RotJ fans).

  It's a pseudo-documentary about Leonard Zelig, played by Woody, who
wants so much to be liked by others that he takes on the
characteristics of the people around him.  Zelig doesn't just mimic
their ideas to gain acceptance, he actually takes on their physical
and mental characteristics: he gains two-hundred pounds in the
presence of heavy people, he becomes black when in the company of
black men, he becomes a Republican around rich folks.  He is taken to
a psychiatric hospital for treatment, where his doctor, played by Mia
Farrow, devotes her career to ridding Zelig of his strange malady.
While their weird doctor-patient relationship turns into a weird
romantic relationship, Leonard Zelig becomes a popular cult figure of
the 1920's and 30's.  He's in the newspapers, newsreels, there are
songs written about him ("Leonard the Lizard"), there is a dance named
for him ("The Chameleon"), he mingles with F. Scott Fitzgerald and
Eugene O'Neill, and so on.  Why, Warner Bros. even does a movie of his
life!
  Through "Zelig", Woody Allen pays homage to the classic documentary
film style (which I think is sort of epitomized by documentaries 
produced by David L. Wolper).  Allen's fondness for the documentary
has been seen before:  his use of the style in "Take the Money and Run",
Alvy Singer's obsession with "The Sorrow and the Pity" in "Annie Hall".
While the audience is re-introduced to Allen's long-running love affair
with film, it is not subjected to too much of the autobiographical, 
self-deprecating humor for which Allen has been criticized in recent
movies, particularly "Stardust Memories".
  Also through "Zelig", Woody Allen pokes fun at the 20's, at
historians, at psychology/psychiatry, at romanticized movie versions
of real events, and just about everything else.  But the jabs are
never vicious; they are always friendly.  In fact, "Zelig" has this
feeling of warmth and affection about it that I've never sensed in any
other movie.  The result of all the work done to take new black and
white footage and make it look sixty years old is quite astonishing;
it is almost impossible to distinguish the new film from the old
newsreel and home movie stock.  The love and care and patience that
went into the making of "Zelig" is apparent, and could be expected
only from someone who is as much a film fan as he is a film maker.
If you've come to the rather obvious conclusion that I am a rabid
Woody Allen fan, you're right, and I'm not ashamed.  But you should
probably keep that observation in mind when I say that "Zelig" is the
BEST movie I have seen this year.

Kurt