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From: Caro.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Zelig
Message-ID: <13568@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Nov-83 13:25:52 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13568
Posted: Fri Nov 11 13:25:52 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Nov-83 00:32:05 EST
Lines: 30

Ok, if you're still pining for the "good old days" of "What's Up Tiger
Lily" and "Bananas", forget this movie.  Woody's older now and doesn't
much go for that easy comedy stuff.

Zelig, as you may have heard, is a masterpiece of movie making
technology.  The whole thing is set up like a documentary that spans the
20's and 30's about an odd fellow named Leonard Zelig.  Much of the film
is set in the old "movietone" b&w newsreel format.  There are occasional
cuts to modern time (color) interviews with contemporary people (Saul
Bellow, Susan Sontag, etc), but most of the movie is in b&w.

The most amazing things are done with newsreel footage.  Woody, as
Zelig, shows up in the most unlikely places of the 1920's.  The story is
that Zelig, suffering from a psychological disturbance caused by a rough
childhood ("...his family lived over a bowling alley, but it was the
bowling alley that complained of the noise," a typical Allen scenario),
develops the ability take on the appearance of whoever he is near.  In a
Jazz Speakeasy he first looks like a gangster, then like a black trumpet
player.  Talking to two rabbi's he grows a beard and a hat(!).  As you
might expect, the press lables him the Chameleon.

There is SOME of the old Allen humor left, especially in the interviews
with Mia Farrow (as his psychologist).  But the theme reminds one of
"Stardust Memories", that bitter attack against the Allen fans that want
more "funny pictures."  "Zelig", however, is not so bitter, thankfully.

On the Commodore's Scale of Merit (six bells being all's well), I'd give
this one a 4.

Commodore Perry