Zelig (1983)

Second viewing; first was between 1983 and 1986.

In the form of a documentary, it narrates the adventures of a man possessing supernatural chameleonic capabilities.

Visually it is funny, and furthermore it is punctuated by funny one-liners, but the two things - the verbal and the visual - are quite independent of each other. The plot is not really funny, except for the fact that Zelig after the treatment is more undistinguished than before the treatment (because his undistinguishability was his distinctive trait), and perhaps this is the film's secret irony. At first sight, the film seems essentially an amusing but frivolous affair, but on further thought it ends up being a bit of a satire on frivolity, taking the 20s, which were the frivolous decade par excellence, as its target.  That the film's frivolity is just a mimickry, that the film mirrors its protagonist, who looks like that which is near him, is perhaps another hidden irony in a film that is not perhaps as great as it is curious.

Rating: 60 (down from 73)