This is a technically brilliant spoof documentary. It starts in the 1920s using grainy silent film and stills, goes through the sound era and ends in colour in the 1980s. It makes clever use of library footage and newsreels so that what you see on the screen is always plausibly what could have been shot at the time. For example, when Dr Fletcher goes to a nightclub it is illustrated by stock footage of a 1920's nightclub plus stills of Dr Fletcher that a nightclub photographer might have taken. The scenes of Zelig's treatment are explained by Dr Fletcher's being an early exponent of the use of film to record a case history. Some of the newsreel is completely faked and some is doctored so that, for example Zelig appears to be at a Hitler rally or appears to be sung to by Fanny Brice. There are also excerpts from a fake 1935 Hollywood biopic based on Zelig's life. All this is intercut with a modern commentary in colour featuring an elderly Dr Fletcher and real personalities such as Saul Bellow and Susan Sontag.
The pastiche musical numbers such as Do the Chameleon, Chameleon Days and Leonard the Lizard, were a joy
That said, the film is not very funny. I sat there thinking: Wow, this is brilliant' but with only a half-smile on my face. Even at 75 minutes I found it a bit too long and repetitive like an idea for a short story that has been stretched too far.
The pastiche musical numbers such as Do the Chameleon, Chameleon Days and Leonard the Lizard, were a joy
That said, the film is not very funny. I sat there thinking: Wow, this is brilliant' but with only a half-smile on my face. Even at 75 minutes I found it a bit too long and repetitive like an idea for a short story that has been stretched too far.