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Zelig

  • 1983
  • PG
  • 1h 19m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
43K
YOUR RATING
Zelig (1983)
Set in the 1920s and 1930s, the film focuses on Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen), a nondescript man who has the ability to transform his appearance to that of the people who surround him. He is first observed at a party by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who notes that Zelig related to the affluent guests in a refined Boston accent and shared their Republican sympathies, but while in the kitchen with the servants, he adopted a coarser tone and seemed to be more of a Democrat. He soon gains international fame as a "human chameleon".
Play trailer0:47
1 Video
57 Photos
Comedy

"Documentary" about a man who can look and act like whoever he's around, and meets various famous people."Documentary" about a man who can look and act like whoever he's around, and meets various famous people."Documentary" about a man who can look and act like whoever he's around, and meets various famous people.

  • Director
    • Woody Allen
  • Writer
    • Woody Allen
  • Stars
    • Woody Allen
    • Mia Farrow
    • Patrick Horgan
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    43K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Woody Allen
    • Writer
      • Woody Allen
    • Stars
      • Woody Allen
      • Mia Farrow
      • Patrick Horgan
    • 129User reviews
    • 69Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 Oscars
      • 7 wins & 19 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 0:47
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos57

    Woody Allen, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover in Zelig (1983)
    Mia Farrow in Zelig (1983)
    Woody Allen in Zelig (1983)
    Woody Allen in Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)
    Woody Allen in Zelig (1983)
    Zelig (1983)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Woody Allen
    Woody Allen
    • Leonard Zelig
    Mia Farrow
    Mia Farrow
    • Dr. Eudora Nesbitt Fletcher
    Patrick Horgan
    Patrick Horgan
    • The Narrator
    • (voice)
    John Buckwalter
    John Buckwalter
    • Dr. Sindell
    Marvin Chatinover
    Marvin Chatinover
    • Glandular Diagnosis Doctor
    Stanley Swerdlow
    • Mexican Food Doctor
    Paul Nevens
    • Dr. Birsky
    Howard Erskine
    • Hypodermic Doctor
    George Hamlin
    • Experimental Drugs Doctor
    Ralph Bell
    • Other Doctor
    Richard Whiting
    • Other Doctor
    Will Hussung
    Will Hussung
    • Other Doctor
    • (as Will Hussong)
    Robert Iglesia
    • Man in Barber Chair
    Eli Resnick
    • Man in Park
    Edward McPhillips
    • Scotsman
    Gale Hansen
    Gale Hansen
    • Freshman #1
    Michael Jeter
    Michael Jeter
    • Freshman #2
    • (as Michael Jeeter)
    Peter McRobbie
    Peter McRobbie
    • Workers Rally Speaker
    • Director
      • Woody Allen
    • Writer
      • Woody Allen
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      To create authenticity, the production used actual lenses, cameras and sound equipment from the 1920s, and used the exact same lighting that would have been done. In addition, 'Gordon Willis' took the exposed negatives to the shower, and stomped on them. As a result, even having shot and being acclaimed for The Godfather I & II before, Willis was greeted with his first Academy Award nomination.
    • Goofs
      The speaking person in his 60s in one of the modern interviews in the film is subtitled as "Former SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl". If the interviews were conducted in the early 1980s, the person is evidently too young; the real Pohl was born in June 1892, so he would have been in his late 80s/early 90s at the time - of course if he had not been hanged for war crimes in 1951.
    • Quotes

      Leonard Zelig: I'm 12 years old. I run into a Synagogue. I ask the Rabbi the meaning of life. He tells me the meaning of life... But, he tells it to me in Hebrew. I don't understand Hebrew. Then he wants to charge me six hundred dollars for Hebrew lessons.

    • Connections
      Featured in Scene by Scene: Woody Allen (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      Leonard the Lizard
      Composed by Dick Hyman

      Sung by Bernie Knee, Steve Clayton and Tony Wells

    User reviews129

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    "Identity Crisis and Its Relationship to Personality Disorder "
    One of the most sophisticated, cleverest, funniest, exquisitely shot and edited, scored, and acted movies ever made, "Zelig" is a masterpiece and astounding work even for Woody Allen whose mediocre movies are way above the regular Hollywood fares.

    With the modest running time less than 80 minutes, this mockumentary tells the story of a "human chameleon", Leonard Zelig, Leonard the Lizard who possessed an extraordinary ability to transform himself in anyone he met (or should I say, an extraordinary ability possessed him?).

    Leonard is a shy, little, meek Jewish man whose rare personality disorder consists of not having his own personality at all and successfully and effortlessly adapting any personality he came close to and fitting perfectly to any surroundings. His skin turns black when he is with the Black people, with the Native Americans, he became one; attending the dinner with the intellectuals, he speaks brilliantly with F.S. Fitzgerald, when on the baseball field, he is Babe Ruth. The meeting with an intelligent and compassionate psychiatrist, Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow) will begin the slow and long process for Zelig of searching and finding his own personality and possibility for love and happiness. The movie provides laughs and smiles but it also makes the viewer think of more serious subjects. Are we all have a Zelig inside? Don't we all want to be liked and try to adapt to our surroundings to feel comfortable? The movie can also be viewed as the meditation on the nature of the acting ability. While watching "Zelig", I kept thinking of a book I read recently. One of the characters was a great actor who had the similar to Zelig's disorder - he had no personality at all until he was given a part to act on stage. That Actor made the best and most convincing and complex Shakespeare's heroes - he was a brilliant reflective Hamlet but his greatest success was tragic Othello. The actor's transformation to Othello was so real that he acted it at home with his wife whom he suspected in cheating - he played his role perfectly with the same as in the play results. He ended up in the asylum where he could not act but he was allowed to read...Dostoevsky's novel "The Possessed" from which he chose to adapt the personality of Nikolai Stavrogin with rather unpredictable results. When his doctor finally realized what happened, he took all books with the exception of "The Idiot". Finally, the actor became a gentle and kind Prinz Myshkin, and that was the end of book.

    Both, the book and the movie "Zelig" made me think of the price the artists pay to achieve perfection in their art. Are they vampires sucking the life out of their victims only to use them as characters for their acting roles? Is that the ultimate price the artist is paying for being a great artist? Does he need lives and souls of others to be able to create? This is one of many subjects "Zelig" makes you think about.

    Allen seamlessly weds Black and white newsreel footage with his humorous but deep and fascinating tale allowing Zelig to be exactly where and when History was made. Using special lenses to give the movie the old style, mixing his own footage with the real documentaries, including his favorite music, dances, feeling perfectly forever gone era, Woody recreates The Roaring 20Th with breathtaking authenticity.

    M:IWIHSIIT - according to my new grading system, a Masterpiece, I wish I had seen in the theater
    helpful•26
    5
    • Galina_movie_fan
    • May 25, 2006

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 25, 1983 (Argentina)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Identity Crisis and Its Relationship to Personality Disorder
    • Filming locations
      • New Jersey, USA
    • Production companies
      • Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions
      • Orion Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $11,798,616
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $60,119
      • Jul 17, 1983
    • Gross worldwide
      • $11,798,616
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 19 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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