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(out of 5)
One of Woody Allen’s most fascinating achievements as an artist, and he has never made anything like it before or since. Filmed as a documentary (though entirely fictional in content) it deals with the mysterious life of the shadowy title character, a man from the roaring twenties considered to be a chameleon and famous for his ability to blend into any characteristic around him. Mia Farrow appears as the psychiatrist who thoroughly examines Zelig in hypnotherapy in order to unravel the great mystery. The film’s most fascinating quality is the authentic recreation of the period, particularly the grainy black-and-white photography by Gordon Willis that was painstakingly degraded so as to look like it was stock footage abandoned in a vault for decades. Witty and clever, this film stands completely on its own in the master’s canon.
Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions, Orion Pictures
USA, 1983
Directed by Woody Allen
Screenplay by Woody Allen
Cinematography by Gordon Willis
Produced by Robert Greenhut
Music by Dick Hyman
Production Design by Mel Bourne
Costume Design by Santo Loquasto
Film Editing by Susan E. Morse
Cast Tags: Alice Beardsley,Anton Marco, Bernice Dowis, Bernie Herold,Bricktop, Bruno Bettelheim, Charles Denny, Deborah Rush, Dimitri Vassilopoulos, Dwight Weist, Ed Herlihy, Ed Lane, Edward McPhillips,Eli Resnick, Elizabeth Rothschild, Ellen Garrison,Erma Campbell, Francis Beggins, Gale Hansen,Garrett M. Brown, George Hamlin, Gerald Klein,Gordon Gould, Howard Erskine,Irving Howe, Jack Cannon, Jean Trowbridge,Jeanine Jackson, John Buckwalter, John Doumanian, John Morton Blum, John Rothman,Jurgen Kuehn, Ken Chapin, Kuno Sponholz,Louise Deitch, Marianne Tatum, Marshall Cole Sr.,Marvin Chatinover, Mary Louise Wilson, Mia Farrow,Michael Jeter, Michael Kell, Patrick Horgan, Paul Nevens, Paula Trueman,Peter McRobbie, Ralph Bell, Richard Litt, Richard Whiting, Robert Berger, Robert Iglesia, Saul Bellow, Sharon Ferrol-Young, Sherman Loud, Sol Lomita, Stanley Simmonds, Stanley Swerdlow, Stephanie Farrow, Susan Sontag, Theodore R. Smits, Vincent Jerman-Jerosa, Wendell Craig,Will Hussung, Willy Holt
Academy Award Nominations
Best Cinematography (Gordon Willis)
Best Costume Design (Santo Loquasto)
Golden Globe Award Nominations
Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical
Best Performance By An Actor in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical (Woody Allen)
New York Film Critics Award
Best Cinematographer (Gordon Willis)
Nominations
Best Director (Woody Allen)
Best Screenplay (Woody Allen)
National Society of Film Critics Award Nomination
Best Cinematography (Gordon Willis)
Writers Guild Award Nomination
Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen
British Academy Award Nominations
Best Screenplay – Original
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Special Visual Effects
Best Make Up Artist
