The Chandler Center for the Arts will present the fifth of seven classic comic films in its 2011-12 film series this Sunday evening, Feb. 19.

“Zelig,” written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Allen and Mia Farrow, was described by Vincent Canby of the New York Times when it came out in 1983 as “a nearly perfect—and perfectly original— Woody Allen comedy.” Canby noted that the film “works simultaneously as social history, as a love story, as an examination of several different kinds of film narrative, as satire and as parody.” For many, this is Woody Allen’s best.

“Zelig” is a filmmaking triumph. A decade before the advent of digital filmmaking technology, Allen and his cinematographer Gordon Willis (who won an Oscar for “Zelig”) seamlessly mixed together antique newsreel footage with contemporary shooting, and integrated the chameleon-like main character Leonard Zelig interactively into historic moments with such past figures as Charles Lindbergh, Al Capone, Charlie Chaplin, Eugene O’Neill, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker, Calvin Coolidge, Carole Lombard, Adolf Hitler, James Cagney, Babe Ruth, and Pope Pius XI. Even Susan Sontag, Bruno Bettelheim, Saul Bellow and Irving Howe make cameo appearances as members of a large supporting cast.

Set in the 1920s and 1930s in the style of a documentary, and supported by a rich soundtrack of period music, “Zelig” focuses on an enigmatic man whose strange capacity to adopt for his own use the identity of anyone he’s near, makes him a international celebrity. Although normally only a cipher, he transforms himself into an eminent psychiatrist, a member of Hitler’s staff, a baseball player, a circus performer, a motivational speak­er, and a pilot. When with French people, a moustache appears on his upper lip and he speaks French. His body enlarges when in the company of fat people. He is Asian, then Aryan, then Indian, than Hasidic, then Native American. During a party, he morphs from an upper crust Bostonian to a proletarian.

Ultimately, Leonard expresses contrition for the damage his transformations have done in the world: “I would like to apologize to everyone. I’m awfully sorry for marrying all those women. It just, I don’t know, it just seemed like the thing to do. And to the gentleman whose appendix I took out, I don’t know what to say. If it’s any consolation, I may still have it somewhere around the house.”

On Sunday, Rick Winston, regular commentator for the Chandler series, will open the evening at 7 p.m. with a lecture on the significance of “Zelig” in the Woody Allen canon and in the history of film comedy.

During a discussion following the screening, the audience will get a chance to comment on the movie. These informal post-film sessions with the guest film historian have become a popular part of the evening’s events.

The Upper Gallery doors open at 6:15 p.m. for socializing. Free canapés and popcorn will be served, and wine, beer, and soda will be offered at a cash bar.

A grant from the John M. Bissell Foundation is making possible a greatly improved projection system this year.

Tickets are available at the door. For more information, contact Betsy Cantlin at 802-431-0204 or outreach@ chandler-arts.org.