Zelig. 1983. Directed by Woody Allen.

(8/25/00)

Zelig is my favorite Woody Allen film. This is the first time I have ever seen it in a theater and it was a joy from start to finish. It impresses me very much as a work of imagination. It is hard to pin down what I mean, but I am impressed that Allen came up with a whole concept--both in the story and in the way it would be presented--and then executed it so brilliantly. He creates a whole world in this film. I can only wonder what it was like to make it, since he doesn't have actors playing scenes in the traditional way. Sometimes they just appear in photographs; sometimes they just appear at a distance as if caught by newsreel photographers.

Seeing it for the first time in a theater I was struck by how the black-and-white footage really looked like black-and-white. It is difficult to mix black-and-white and color because the final print would be on color stock. But Woody Allen took pains and didn't do it the easy way.

What interested me this time around was that Eudora Fletcher at first wanted to exploit Zelig just as everybody else did. She is concerned with making her reputation. But she outgrows that and it is when she does that she really becomes able to help him.

And while the exploitation of Zelig is so heartless it is hard to not get caught up in the exhilaration of it, to not delight in something like the Zelig doll and the voice of Al Jolson singing to Zelig. I found myself singing "Chameleon Days" the day before the screening, in gleeful anticipation.