I don't think you could call yourself a lover of cinema if Woody Allen's
Zelig didn't do it for you: the film is so fully realized in aesthetic terms that it intimidates our memories of the most stylish movies we've seen. A mockumentary about a Depression-era basket case named Leonard Zelig (Allen) who can assimilate himself to a startling degree into any social setting,
Zelig is told largely through
faux newsreels that echo its subject's chameleonic gift: the fakery is utterly transporting, and when Allen-created shots are combined with actual historical footage, the effect is much more organic than the like in
Forrest Gump. Too,
Zelig has a moral centre that's preferable to Allen's usual self-aggrandizement, with Zelig the character's lack of individuality making him ethically pliable. And although it's said jokily, onscreen interviewee Irving Howe's comment that Zelig's fear of standing out sums up the early Jewish-American experience is a poignant one. (In other places, the film's Semitic humour can get a bit too Mel Brooksian for its own good.) Somehow, Allen also manages to sketch a moving, if vague, love story between Zelig and his shrink (Mia Farrow, natch) and pulls off a brilliant satire of Warner's awful thirties pictures--where did the Woody of
Zelig, a consummate filmmaker, go? MGM's anamorphic DVD release of
Zelig appears over-matted at 1.85:1; video quality is difficult to judge as the majority of the print used for this transfer was in substandard condition on purpose. It all
seems right, and that's what's important. The Dolby 1.0 mono sound is respectable. The disc includes a trailer and a nutritive collectible booklet.
-Bill Chambers
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