Posted on 07/14/2008 6:14:11 PM PDT by doug from upland
DFU COMMENT: Barack Obama will say anything he needs to say to any group. He will withdraw the troops - he will listen to the generals. He would look at the data regarding vouchers - he is totally against vouchers. He is Leonard Zelig and living the Woody Allen film.
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One of Woody Allen's most diverse film projects, and coincidentally his shortest film to date, was the pseudo-documentary film he released in 1983, Zelig. The film, which Allen worked on at the same time as A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, is a visual marvel and a miniature gem in Allen's filmography. Though he had used a documentary approach somewhat in his first directorial feature, Take the Money and Run (1967), it was with Zelig that he went "all the way", so to speak. If you were unfamilair with the faces of Allen and Farrow, and were to stumble upon this "documentary" on television, it would take quite some time to figure out that it couldn't possibly be true. This is a testament to the rigorous mimicry of the documentary style that Allen creates and employs for the entire 80 minutes of the film.
Zelig is the completely fictional, highly entertaining documentary of the chameleon-man, Leonard Zelig. Played by Allen, Zelig is a man first noticed at a party by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who has the ability to turn in to other people when surrounded by them. For example, if he is among doctors, he transforms into a doctor, if around overweight people, he quickly becomes heavy himself. I shouldn't say it's an ability, it's more of a coping mechanism for Zelig. As he admits in psychiatric care, he wants to fit in so badly that he literally becomes whoever he is with. It is a typically briliant set-up for a Woody Allen film, yet it never plays like a film (indeed there are only a handful of scenes in the entire film). Instead, he uses pictures, voice-over narration, and interviews with surviving people who knew him to tell this unusual story.
At the same time, Zelig is a bit of a love story, centering on Zelig and the psychologist who attempts to treat and cure his rare disease. The nurse, played by Mia Farrow (in her second Allen film), eventually is able to make breakthroughs through the use of hypnosis and other tools, and begins to catch a glimpse of the "real" Leonard Zelig. The two begin to spend much time together, both in treatment and outside of it, and the press pays them much attention--especially when she appears to have "cured" him. But, as you would expect from a Woody Allen film, just when you think you've had enough of the gag, he pushes it into a completely unexpected direction. As Zelig seeks to marry his doctor, a woman comes forward and claims that Zelig married her years earlier, and is the father of her child. Soon, many women come forward with the same complaint. Zelig's lawyers try to claim that he could not be held responsible for things he did while assuming an alternate personality, but the public doesn't buy it. Soon, the once loved Zelig becomes the outcast, infamous Zelig. Without spoiling the ending for those of you who may not have seen it, I'll stop the plot summary there.
Zelig is a unique film, quite unlike any other I can recall seeing. Though it is completely fictional, it rarely seems to wink at that, choosing to play it as a straight documentary, and allowing the laughs and jokes to arise from this set-up. As I mentioned earlier, this film was made at a particularly busy part of Allen's film career (overlapping with his work on Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy), and a particularly important part. After the critical and commercial trashing he took for Stardust Memories, he felt he needed to move in a different direction--though not one that any person could be expecting. With the late-19th century, light-hearted Sex Comedy and the pseudo-documentary Zelig, Allen definitely accomplished this and established himself as an artist continually seeking out new ways of telling his tales and making his films.
B.H. Obama.
In fact, Barack Obama specifically voted four times in the Illinois Legislature to allow criminal charges against a homeowner who used a firearm in self-defense of their person and home — specifically what the Supreme Court says is a constitutional right. Obama may say he supports it, but his record says exactly the opposite.
Good photo of Obama. Did you get it from his official campaign site or from their double-secret campaign site which only the inner-circle know about?
Campaign theme-song: “The man in the Mirror”
I am [H]ugh.
Basically, Riesman said that in American society in the late 1940s and 1950s, there existed outer-directed people, who strove to assert independence and authority, and "inner-directed" people who chose to acquiesce to the conventions of the day by agreeing with others and not causing waves. In extreme cases, the "other directed person" would take on the characteristics of any group or individual they were with at a given time, for the purpose of gaining "acceptance."
Leonard Zelig and Barry Obama should be characterized as other-directed men in the extreme.
Priceless!
Best line in that movie was:
“When young Leanord was bad, his parents would lock him in a closet. When he was really bad, they would get into the closet with him.”
Loved that movie. Its really one of the only Woody Allen movies I like.
I have always thought other-directed people were making up for a low IQ. Using social grease as their get-ahead medium.
“Do The Chameleon” should be Obama’s campaign theme song.
When he speaks, he reminds me of I think it was “Chauncey Gardener” in Being There( I think that’s the film).
There is another more appropriate film analogy:
Chameleon Street (1989):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101561/
"William Douglas Street is bored with his life. Working for his father is getting to him, his wife wants more money, and he's had enough. His solution is to re-invent himself. He becomes a chameleon, taking on whatever role suits the situation. From reporter to doctor to lawyer, he impersonates anyone he sees a need for and he can earn money being. The movie is based on the real people, William Douglas Street, Jr., and Erik Dupin."
If memory serves me, Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow--in her best role) was a psychiatrist, not a nurse. Am I correct?
It’s been so long, I don’t remember. I enjoyed his movies before we discovered he was a lowlife pervert. TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN literally had me falling out of my seat laughing.
Here is the song on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L6Iq0HfZ-U
And I've never seen a funnier scene than the one in Husbands and Wives when Judy Davis is on her first date since seperation from her husband! The man wants a romantic evening. He's taking her to Mozart's Don Giovanni. I still laugh out loud just thinking about that scene.
I think The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of Woody's cleverest and best movies, but it's sad, not funny.
And if anybody hasn't seen Woody Allen's Matchpoint--it is extremely good and very clever--but dark--not funny--not a comedy--and one of Woody's best.
Sleeper was incredibly funny - Annie Hall delightful - Hannah and Her Sisters had wonderful moments. Crimes and Misdemeanors, in a darker vein, was also outstanding. A great and original filmmaker.
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