Zelig is an inventive leap for Allen (in a period where he was wildly creative) but also in tune with his normal obsessions and thematic muses such as psychoanalysis, romance, and jazz
An important landmark in the history of the mockumentary comedy film subgenre—it’s a year before spinal tap and of course is related to woody’s debut, also a mockumentary, take the money and run and there are elements again in husbands in wives
Gordon Willis first Oscar nom (that’s insane)—he made 34 films as DP and 8 of those are with allen made from 1977 with annie hall and ending with purple rose in 1985. A great period of director and dp collaboration
Great line about living above a bowling alley but because of the fighting it was the bowling alley that complained
I think Allen is more interested in the psychological mechanism of coping (and a way for him to explore that and a period of time he loves- 1920’s (midnight in paris) than the historic nazi assimilation/holocaust statement (that statement is more likely the aim of bertolucci in the similarly themed the conformist)
A remarkable level of detail in the film for an artist directing a film a year
Part newsreel, the audio pops with authenticity and then we have a lot of zooming in on still photographs
An apt nazi/hitler climax
Would be influential to zemeckis and forrest gump 11 years later
Simple parable, criticized for being a 30 minute idea stretched to 80 minutes
Forgoes woody’s trademark jazz and plain black opening credits
[…] Zelig – Allen […]