MovieChat Forums > Zelig (1983) Discussion > Is everyone missing this?

Is everyone missing this?

posted 17 years ago by Catstello
3 replies | jump to latest

I see frequent mentions on the Zelig boards of Woody Allen's "recreation of a 'vintage documentary style'" and so forth. But wait! The Zelig documentary is a contemporary one (or at least contemporary for 1983). Commentators like Susan Sontag and Saul Bellow participate, and in COLOR I might add.

So the Zelig 'doc' is composed of current commentary intercut with volumes of archival footage, stills, newsreels, classic movies, and perhaps earlier docs, all shot or manipulated by Allen for this movie, and each part made with its own appropriate technical and stylistic methods. Notice that the footage from the "The Changing Man" feature film has a totally different tone and image quality than the "Chameleon" dance craze footage, then compare these to the "White Room" sessions with Eudora Fletcher or the newsreel interview with Dr. Fletcher's mother. Miles apart.

Thematically, Zelig is rich and diverse. Technically its astonishing. Allen's (and DP Gordon Willis') trick was not recreating the feel of an "old-time documentary," instead it was using and synthesizing a whole plethora of different techniques and styles into a single cohesive narrative.

If Zelig has a gimmick, it's taking the tactics of the "News on the March" segment from Citizen Kane and turning them into 79-minute feature film, but this is hardly a convenient shortcut to get some cheap laughs. Allen's damn good and he's also dedicated; Zelig is a testament to this.

[–] Morlock-Mike 16 years ago

You're right. Zelig does utilize a fairly contemporary documentary style yet many seem to state otherwise.

[–] andrewwjohnson 14 years ago

.........Going in most people aware this is a fake documentary put together by Woody Allen. That said I've seen many documentaries, over the years, where experts and public figure have commented on people and events from long before they were born. Film can be cleaned up, even in 1983, and sound is often added. The there are the reenactments "with special attention to historic details" which may or may not be labeled. File footage and scenes from movies, about the subject, are often added. In point of fact Zelig is a satire of the BBC documentaries, often seen on PBS or the early A&E Network. The hilarious dead pan narration greatly adds to the effect..........Woody Allen did much the same thing in "Take the Money and Run; a very funny send up of true crime documentaries.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.

[–] just_a_bored_person 12 years ago

you're right, of course. this film is the most accomplished film when it comes to form and content interaction. it has so many layers of self-reflexivity. just a little, minor example. in one scene, a group of psychiatrists visit dr. fletcher at her place. the camera stands still, like you would expect, because it mimicks the format of a homefilm. the voice-over narratot begins to explain zelig progresses in nuilding his own (authentic) persona, but mentions him being in a state of going to far in that he contradicts other people's opinions as principle. the static homefilm-recordings menawhile show zelig, dr. fletcher and the psyciatrists walking into the background of the frame. then, in the very distant you see them (supposeably zelig and one of the psychiatrists getting in a fight). you have the matter-of-fact build-up of the joke via the voice-over while the pay-off is just possible on the visuell level.

and as i said, this is just a minor example.

people have said that the film is very short, but it is so dense that it doesn't need to be any longer. it has more to say than some 3 hour epic.

NOT YOU!