Students of history, take note: Movies about real people and real events are not without their inaccuracies. There, now that I have that out of the way, let's talk about "The Life of Émile Zola".
This movie tries to portray Zola as a struggling writer, an artist who creates only for art's sake. His mission is to expose the corruption of the French government with his writings. To a point, Paul Muni's portrayal of Zola is somewhat believable, but something intangible was missing from his performance.
The first half-hour of the movie covers the early days of his career, as a man desperately trying to bring corruption and hypocrisy to the surface, so that all of Paris (and eventually the world) would remove its rose-colored glasses and do something to right the wrongs. But once his first book, "Nana", flies off the bookstore shelves, Zola begins his transformation into the kind of person he had been fighting all along: A rich fat-cat who would much rather collect fine artifacts and eat lobster at least once a week. Even his roommate from the early days, Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) finds he is forced to end their friendship because Zola can't return to those starving days of youth, while Cezanne himself had never left them. Though hurt by this news, Zola is still content with his life, until the Dreyfus Affair literally lands on his doorstep.
The Dreyfus Affair takes up virtually the entire remainder of the movie, culminating in a courtroom drama I have yet to make a comparison with any other film. What makes the Zola trial unique in its presentation is that the defense was limited to a mere six lines of text related to Zola's "J'Accuse..." article, and that any mention of the Dreyfus case (which was officially closed) was not allowed. Zola is an underdog here and, though he'd been an underdog much of his life, this time he chose to take on the struggle.
The performances in this movie are mixed. The standout performance, to me, belongs to Gale Sondergaard, as Dreyfus' tormented wife, Lucie. Joseph Schildkraut, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Captain Dreyfus, did little more than scream "I'm innocent!" over and over (but he did do it well).
"The Life of Émile Zola" also has its comedic elements (seeing Zola struggle with not one, but two, umbrellas comes to mind), but they are few and far in between. I would suggest this film for people who like court dramas, especially the way this one was played out.
By the way, in retrospect, I believe this was a daring movie for its time. After all, it centers around the persecution of a Jewish officer in a military rampant with anti-Semitism. More, this movie was released in 1937, during the beginnings of the American pacifist movement and the peak of Adolph Hitler's power in Germany. I should note that though no one mentions the word "Jew" in the movie, we know that Dreyfus was Jewish because it was listed in his biographical information in the military roster used to "find" the spy.
Oh, and that "inaccuracies" thing I mentioned earlier? In the movie, Zola dies the night before Dreyfus is reinstated into the French Army. In truth, Zola died in 1902, and Dreyfus was pardoned in 1906. I do not profess to know much about the Dreyfus Affair, but I do know that much.
This movie tries to portray Zola as a struggling writer, an artist who creates only for art's sake. His mission is to expose the corruption of the French government with his writings. To a point, Paul Muni's portrayal of Zola is somewhat believable, but something intangible was missing from his performance.
The first half-hour of the movie covers the early days of his career, as a man desperately trying to bring corruption and hypocrisy to the surface, so that all of Paris (and eventually the world) would remove its rose-colored glasses and do something to right the wrongs. But once his first book, "Nana", flies off the bookstore shelves, Zola begins his transformation into the kind of person he had been fighting all along: A rich fat-cat who would much rather collect fine artifacts and eat lobster at least once a week. Even his roommate from the early days, Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) finds he is forced to end their friendship because Zola can't return to those starving days of youth, while Cezanne himself had never left them. Though hurt by this news, Zola is still content with his life, until the Dreyfus Affair literally lands on his doorstep.
The Dreyfus Affair takes up virtually the entire remainder of the movie, culminating in a courtroom drama I have yet to make a comparison with any other film. What makes the Zola trial unique in its presentation is that the defense was limited to a mere six lines of text related to Zola's "J'Accuse..." article, and that any mention of the Dreyfus case (which was officially closed) was not allowed. Zola is an underdog here and, though he'd been an underdog much of his life, this time he chose to take on the struggle.
The performances in this movie are mixed. The standout performance, to me, belongs to Gale Sondergaard, as Dreyfus' tormented wife, Lucie. Joseph Schildkraut, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Captain Dreyfus, did little more than scream "I'm innocent!" over and over (but he did do it well).
"The Life of Émile Zola" also has its comedic elements (seeing Zola struggle with not one, but two, umbrellas comes to mind), but they are few and far in between. I would suggest this film for people who like court dramas, especially the way this one was played out.
By the way, in retrospect, I believe this was a daring movie for its time. After all, it centers around the persecution of a Jewish officer in a military rampant with anti-Semitism. More, this movie was released in 1937, during the beginnings of the American pacifist movement and the peak of Adolph Hitler's power in Germany. I should note that though no one mentions the word "Jew" in the movie, we know that Dreyfus was Jewish because it was listed in his biographical information in the military roster used to "find" the spy.
Oh, and that "inaccuracies" thing I mentioned earlier? In the movie, Zola dies the night before Dreyfus is reinstated into the French Army. In truth, Zola died in 1902, and Dreyfus was pardoned in 1906. I do not profess to know much about the Dreyfus Affair, but I do know that much.