Zelig

Zelig (1983)

Timing: 1:19 (79 min)

7.4/10
902

7.831/10
12092

7.6/10
46000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 26

Actors and characters

Release date

1983-07-15

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures, Orion Pictures, Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions

Genre

Comedy

Budget

$13 500 000

Revenue

$11 798 616

Website

Director

Woody Allen

Actors

Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Patrick Horgan, John Buckwalter, Marvin Chatinover, Stanley Swerdlow, Paul Nevens, Howard Erskine, Richard Whiting, Ralph Bell
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Woody Allen

Producer

Robert Greenhut, Charles H. Joffe, Jack Rollins

Operator

Gordon Willis

Composer

Dick Hyman

Artist

Audition

Juliet Taylor

Editing

Susan E. Morse
All team (79)

• In 2007, Italian psychiatrists led by Giovanni Coniglia discovered a rare neurological disorder, the victims of which behave as the protagonist of this film does (psychologically, but not physically). They proposed naming this disorder Seligman syndrome.
• The cinematographer used old lenses, cameras, sound and lighting equipment. Moreover, he trampled on the film to age it.
• Mae Questel, who voiced the animated character Betty Boop from 1931 to 1989, provided the voice for Helen Kane singing "Chameleon Days" in this film.
• Woody Allen initially wanted Greta Garbo to play the role of the journalist conducting the interview.
• The final scene was filmed in the same house that was used during the filming of 'Sexual Comedy in a Summer Night' (1982).
• To help make the film look like it was from the 1930s, DuArt, a data processing laboratory, called on its specialists who were already retired and who had the appropriate experience.
• While trying to make the film look like footage from old newsreels, Woody Allen managed to shoot two more films ('Sexual Comedy in a Summer Night', 1982, and 'Broadway Danny Rose', 1984). Allen later said that there were no mechanical ways to age the film, and they simply had to crumple and trample the negatives.
• John Gielgud was originally cast as the narrator. He even recorded all of his lines, but Woody Allen, after listening to the recording, decided that his voice was not suitable because it sounded 'too majestic' for the role.
• In one scene, the narrator mentions a photograph of Leonard Zeliga as a pagliacci, which translates from Italian as "clowns." It would be more accurate to use the singular form of the word – pagliaccio.