The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola

source: The Life of Emile Zola

This is a good movie. However, it exhibits the strange quality of pictures from the thirties and forties in that is almost completely ignores the issue of anti-semitism. At the heart of the Drefuss affair was anti-semitism. The only reference to Dreyfuss's Jesishness is a brief moment when we see the notation that his religion is Jewish. I have lately noticed in films from this era that Jews were an oddly invisible group. Movies about World War II spoke about refugees, but seemed have overlooked the fact that Jews were the particular target of the Third Reich. Obviously this was a conscious decision on the part of the movie makers. Perhaps they felt that the country was not ready to face the fact of anti-semitism. It is in this context that I have come to realize the importance of "Gentleman's Agreement".

The weakest part of The Life of Emile Zola is, unfortunately, the title character. Paul Muni's portrayal of the famous author is melodramatic and, frankly, annoying. It's only when the film gets to story of Alfred Dreyfus that it finally gains some traction. Based strictly on filmmaking innovation and cultural impact, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs should have won in 1937 instead of this movie.

Paul Muni (Oscar-nominated) stars as the titled character in this very good Best Picture winner from 1937. The film is based on the famous French muckraker/author who fought against anti-semitism in the late-1800s and also fought to free the wrongly convicted Dreyfuss (Oscar-winner Joseph Schildkraut), who was sentenced to life on Devil's Island for giving out military secrets. Naturally he was framed by a high-powered French count and it was up to Zola to free him. The film is a genuine biopic that works due to an Oscar-winning screenplay, top-notch direction by the Oscar-nominated William Dieterle and the show-stopping performances of Muni and Schildkraut. High production values and nice cinematography make "The Life of Emile Zola" one of the best films of the 1930s. It is one of the least-known Best Picture winners and that is a shame. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The first third of this biography, devoted to Zola's rise from poverty to fame, is rather dull. It picks up steam with the introduction of the Dreyfus affair, wherein a Jewish Army captain is falsely accused of treason, although the anti-semitism angle is ignored by the film. Muni is terribly hammy in the title role, playing Zola as a pompous blow-hard. As he showed in "The Good Earth" the same year, the actor was never able to adapt his theatrical acting to the screen. Schildkraut is OK as Dreyfus, a performance that won him an Oscar, but Sondergaard overacts as his wife. This overcooked drama beat out the likes of "Stage Door" and "The Awful Truth" to win the Best Picture Oscar.

Of Paul Muni's three biographical films made at Warner Bros. and directed by William Dieterle (the others were THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR [1936] and JUAREZ [1939]), this was the only one which had never been shown on TV in my neck of the woods; ironically, it was the first to make it to DVD - but, then again, it is the most highly-regarded of them! Still, given the film's reputation (Best Picture Oscar Winner, Leonard Maltin rates it **** in his "Movies & Video Guide"), I somehow expected a masterpiece - but, personally, I feel that Dieterle's THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) are greater achievements. Even so, it's been sometime since I watched a vintage old-style Hollywood film; of late, I've mostly been concentrating on Euro-Cult and World Cinema stuff - but, really, there's no beating the professionalism and sheer entertainment value of a product from the cinema's Golden Age! The film strikes a good balance between Zola's literary career and his struggles for social justice: the latter is mostly devoted to the Dreyfus affair, a veritable cause celebre at the time (cinematically treated two more times in DREYFUS [1931] and I ACCUSE [1958], neither of which I've watched though the latter had turned up some years back on late-night Italian TV!), culminating in one of the finest courtroom scenes ever filmed. Production values are top-notch, the Oscar-winning script appropriately literate (though the constant speechifying and the film's two-hour length - by contrast, LOUIS PASTEUR had been less than 90 minutes but, then, the epic and star-studded JUAREZ was longer still - make for a somewhat heavy-going experience) and Dieterle's handling virtually impeccable; the only unpersuasive aspect, perhaps, is the one-dimensional portrayal of the corrupt French military who callously sent Dreyfus to Devil's Island for treason, and left him there to rot for years - even after they had found absolute proof of his innocence, because that would have meant admitting to a mistake! The cast is filled with wonderful characters actors whose familiarity - and reliability - allows utmost audience involvement every step of the way, despite Hollywood's typically idealized viewing of events. Best of all, naturally, are Muni as Zola (simply brilliant, especially during his show-stopping speech at the trial, and who even ages convincingly!) and Schildkraut (a touching Dreyfus who, in spite of his relatively brief appearance, managed to walk off with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar - though, personally, I would have voted for H.B. Warner in LOST HORIZON [1937]!). Unfortunately, the audio level on Warner's otherwise exemplary DVD is rather low; the supplements include three vintage shorts (described in more detail below), as well as the full 1-hour broadcast of a radio adaptation of the script (obviously compressed but also including some minor additions) - presented by Leslie Howard (who, at the end, even interviews William Dieterle!) and featuring Muni himself, accompanied by Josephine Hutchinson (stepping in for Gloria Holden, who had played Zola's wife in the film).

This movie was so stinky, I actually had to split it into three installments to finish watching it. It was only for love of Paul Muni that I did finish it, otherwise I surely would have turned it off and never turned it back on again. The Life of Emile Zola won Oscars for Best Picture of 1937, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Joseph Schildkraut, who only had about seven minutes of screen time. Paul was nominated for Best Actor, and Max Steiner's lousy music was honored with a nomination as well. I've never been one to sympathize with starving artists, or radical muckrakers, so it's no wonder Emile Zola's life story left me cold. Paul Muni, normally an extremely good-looking man, once again donned tons of age makeup to become unattractive. If you've never seen him in a movie, don't start with this one, otherwise you'll never have a crush on him. The film follows Zola from his youth as he starved in a drafty attic before his writing had been discovered, through his chance meeting with Nana, the prostitute he wrote about in his first book, to his involvement in the accusation of treason of a French officer, Dreyfuss. While he is very convincing as an old man, he doesn't even attempt to put on a French accent, and the script doesn't give him much to do besides shout and complain. As long as I'm talking about the script, it's very uneven and choppy. One life event cuts to another, without any transitional scene to connect them. The dialogue is unrealistic and feels like a first draft. With all the competition that year, In Old Chicago, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Good Earth, The Hurricane, and Lost Horizon, I'm surprised this film was nominated for any awards.