Appearance
Zelig
Written and directed by Woody Allen, Zelig (1983) is a landmark mockumentary about Leonard Zelig (Allen), a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his extraordinary ability to physically and psychologically transform to resemble whoever he is near. Presented as a documentary complete with black-and-white newsreel footage, talking-head interviews with real intellectuals including Susan Sontag and Saul Bellow, and period photographs, the film uses groundbreaking optical trickery to insert Zelig into real historical footage alongside figures such as Babe Ruth, Woodrow Wilson, and Adolf Hitler.
To create authentic period newsreel texture, cinematographer Gordon Willis used actual lenses and cameras from the 1920s, shot footage in period lighting conditions, and then physically degraded the negatives. The technique anticipates the visual effects later popularized by Forrest Gump by over a decade.
Location(s)
Zelig was filmed primarily in and around New York City, using a combination of real locations and carefully constructed period sets to recreate the world of 1920s and 1930s America.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, West 51st Street, Manhattan
Several scenes were filmed at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on West 51st Street in Manhattan, whose institutional interiors stood in for the medical and psychiatric facilities where Zelig undergoes treatment and observation. Map Location
Teaneck, New Jersey
Some of Zelig's outdoor period sequences were shot in Teaneck, New Jersey, a location with a history in American filmmaking — D.W. Griffith and the Biograph Company had made films in the area some seventy years earlier. Map Location
Various New York City Locations
The film made use of various locations throughout New York City to evoke the bustling, media-saturated atmosphere of the 1920s, with the city's architecture photographed through period lenses and processed to appear genuinely aged. The closing house exterior was the same location used in Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. Map Location
Director
Woody Allen
Cast
Woody Allen
Mia Farrow
Patrick Horgan
John Buckwalter
IMDB
Contact Us
For any errors contact us at filmsetseeker@proton.me