Leonard Zelig is described as a "human chameleon," but the film *Zelig* goes beyond simple imitation. It distinguishes between copying and parody in a way that recalls how Hitchcock differentiated action from suspense. For instance, Zelig's parents would punish him by locking him in a dark closet. If that were all there was to it, the movie might just be echoing something from Ingmar Bergman’s childhood; Allen’s brilliance comes from adding that when Zelig’s parents were truly angry, they “got into the closet with him” too. The film's targets extend beyond Allen’s family and include journalists (“Back then, you would do anything to sell papers. To get a story, you’d embellish it, exaggerate, maybe even bend the truth a bit. But this was an incredible story—a natural! You just told the truth and it sold papers. It had never happened before”), politicians (“He was trying to sell the same property to multiple people, and... In fact, a congressman from Delaware bought it twice”), psychologists (“I worked with Freud in Vienna. Yes, we disagreed about the idea of penis envy. Freud thought it should be limited to women”), and philosophers (“His presence charmed many prominent French intellectuals who saw him as representing everything”). The film is set in the 1920s and 1930s and centers on Leonard Zelig (Allen), a man lacking strong characteristics who can change his appearance and behavior to match those around him; for example, “When two Frenchmen appear, Zelig adopts their traits and speaks fluent French. When he’s with someone from China, he starts developing Asian features,” and so forth. This desire and ability to fit in ironically isolates him; "Zelig's existence is a kind of non-existence. Lacking personality, his human qualities are lost among the chaos of life. He sits alone, staring into space—a figure, an anonymous person... The one who only wanted to blend in, to feel like he belonged, to avoid being noticed by enemies and be loved, doesn’t fit in, isn’t accepted, is watched by his enemies, and remains abandoned.” His ever-changing nature also allows him access to famous people and historical events. In this regard, *Zelig* is superior to *Forrest Gump*, not just because it came out earlier, but also because it offers a more complex experience. The film challenges conventions in several ways; while Forrest eventually retreats into obscurity, Zelig deliberately places himself at the heart of the action, much to his own discomfort; during an appearance at the Vatican, he disrupts a ceremony that hadn't been performed in “63 years” (while “His Holiness Pope Pius XI tried to shoo him away with a sacred decree”), and in Germany, there’s the ultimate irony: his "wish for anonymity" leads the Jewish Zelig to join the Sturmabteilung—the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party—and ruin Hitler's speech at a Nazi rally ("We couldn't believe our eyes. Hitler’s speech was derailed. He wanted to make a joke about Poland, but then Zelig intervened and Hitler became very upset").

Source on TMDB