Review of Zelig (1983) by Linus K — 08 Nov 2007

Made in the 'when he was still funny' era, this mockumentary is still piss funny and startlingly original today. When you think it was in '83 it takes it to a whole new level. The reccuring joke of placing Forrest Gump in already existing stock footage throughout history was taken directly from Woody Allens comedy Genius, does he get thanks? nope. He even gets unfair and consistent criticism like 'the guy who used make funny films' and 'For Allens latest film he has cast himself as a nerdy neurotic jewish thirty something agonising over love in New York'.

For any of the doubters of Allens comedy genius, I prescribe Zelig (and 'Play It Again Sam', and 'Stardust Memories'...Heck, they're all good, even the serious ones).

He has so many cinematic milestones under his belt it's hard to beleive that there aren't more die hard Woody Allen fans about.

For my money he anticipated the modern resurgence of musicals with 1996's 'Everyone Says I Love You', something nnot every one will be thankful for, but a big milestone in movies nonetheless.

A joke that featured in Annie Hall ('77) which saw a couple having a convoluted, deceptive conversation about their relationship had subtitles appear underneath outlining the sub-text of the conversation, explaining what they ACTUALLY meant. This joke was used in Human Traffic more recently.

Allen honed the chaotic, cartoon-like, broad, zany, comedy in Bananas ('71). This Brand of comedy (almost a genre in itself), usually attributed incorrectly to Mel Brooks, is not one artists creation and can't be claimed as such, but Allens 'Bananas' definetly developed it and commercialised it long before Airplane ('80) & Naked Gun ('88) capitalised further. A solid example is when some typically dramatic non-diegetic music plays when Allen discovers something in his room. He then goes and opens the wardrobe to reveal a string Quartet playing. This joke has appeared numerous times since. Except that Allens is still the best because rather than just looking perplexed and giving the audience its que to laugh, he berates the Quartet for using his closet yet again for practising.

There are many more instances of Woody Allens comedy and cinematic genius, but rather write about them more i'll just say: Go and watch some Woody Allen. And try to make it something other than 'Manhattan' (Though that is still a masterpeice, just a less bombastic one).