Zelig

WHO WAS THE MAN CALLED THE HUMAN CHAMELEON? He rides in a ticker-tape motorcade down Manhattan's canyon of heroes. He stands between U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge. He clowns with boxer Jack Dempsey and he talks theatre with playwright Eugene O' Neill. When Hitler rallies his supporters at Nuremberg, he's right there on the speaker's platform. His name is Leonard Zelig. But who in the world is Leonard Zelig? Zelig is Woody Allen's hilariously inventive new comedy and Leonard Zelig is its hero. He's the ultimate camp follower, a celebrity nonentity who fits in everywhere-because he actually changes his personality to blend with his bizarre surroundings. Conceived as a mock-documentary, Zelig is the "true" story of Leonard Zelig's amazing case history. How did Zelig develop his unique talent? What does he hope to gain from his uncanny mimicry? And finally: Is there a real Leonard Zelig beneath his multiple exteriors? Searching for answers-and saving Zelig from the clutches of a thoroughly baffled medical establishment -is Dr. Eudora Fletcher, played with straight-faced charm by Mia Farrow. She believes that Zelig can be cured. After all, Zelig is only trying to fit in. He just takes his effort to extremes. Gordon Willis's cinematography, cited as 1983's best by New York Film Critics, anchors the "memory" of Zelig firmly in place through the use of black-and-white newsreel-style footage. It all adds up to what Vincent Canby of The New York Times calls "76 minutes of great good humour, wit and dazzling technical effects. A classic". © Orion Pictures Corp and Warner Bros. Inc