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DVD The Life of Emile Zola (Special Edition)
Still as potently relevant today as it was in 1937, The Life of Emile Zola is a marvelously entertaining slab of Hollywood social issue-mongering. The life of the French writer is broadly sketched in the early going, but the film settles into its groove with the Dreyfus affair: the scandalous railroading of a military captain for treason, which shook France to its foundation in the 1890s. The elderly Zola's gradual involvement in the case, climaxing with his electrifying "J'accuse!" essay and subsequent trial for libel, is the heart and soul of the picture.
Warner Bros.' version of this story, directed by William Dieterle, carries over the passion (and hokum) of the previous year's Story of Louis Pasteur. It also retains that film's leading man, Paul Muni, who turns in an elaborately theatrical performance. The result was a box-office smash and three Oscars, for best picture, script, and supporting actor (Joseph Schildkraut, who plays Dreyfus). While the film occasionally creaks with Hollywood artifice, the clarion call of truth and outrage come through surprisingly strongly--indeed the film looks prescient as a warning about governments closing ranks to cover up mistakes. Mostly sidestepped is the anti-Semitic vitriol of the campaign against Dreyfus (his Jewishness is referenced only in a written report glimpsed for a moment). This is an old-fashioned barnburner that encourages the viewer to fan the flames. --Robert Horton
Review(s): DVD The Life of Emile Zola (Special Edition)
Made me want to read his books.
This is a superbly acted, fantastically written, and impressively staged production about an enormous humanitarian subject. Look far and wide and there are not many films that deal with justice and human callousness with quite as much conviction as this excellent film. Paul Muni, as usual, is spectacular. This, along with "I was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", are MUST SEE films that will reinvigorate your faith in the validity of American cinema!
Muni at his best in classic barnstorming period biopic
'The Life of Emile Zola' is more about the Dreyfuss affair than the author's life - only 'Nana' is given more than a passing nod ('Germinal' gets 30 seconds of screentime while the rest of his novels are dismissed in a montage of covers) while his demise is signposted from the very first scene - and it does fall prey to the usual biopic problems ("Nana, pull up a chair next to Cezanne"), but it's such terrific entertainment, who cares? Muni is great value as Zola, much like the offscreen young Chaplin in the early scenes before becoming the great man of letters, where he walks the tightrope between over and underplaying, and he's given two great setpiece speeches - J'accuse and his address to the court - that are foolproof crowdpleasers that he handles with relish and aplomb. It's like one of Warners' crusading social issue pictures that just happens to have been set in the late 19th century and shot on an epic scale, and it has an immediacy and sense of moral outrage that is surprisingly powerful and deeply felt and even, ultimately, quite moving. Dated, yes, but undeniably impressive stuff despite Donald Crisp's very unfortunate haircut.
The DVD is a great package - a good transfer plus traler and radio adaptation and a couple of incongrous short films - that is well worth adding to any classic collection.
Zola's Public Confrontation - Inspiring Cinema...
Freedom is often taken for granted in our technologically advancing society, as a political and social complacency seems to have been generated through an overwhelming level of obligation to professional careers and other domestic responsibilities. People are also literally crushed by an ever-growing media tsunami through cable TV, abundance of Internet news sites, and newspapers. In this depth of information the individual simply drowns, as vital information is often smudged with star-studded gossip in the non-stop news tickers. Mass information could therefore function as a form of misinformation when essential information tries to reach the light of public attention. Some of this information could be in regards to decisions politicians and other authority figures make, which could affect the rights of the people. Thus, it has become essential for people to learn how to filter information. However, in the days of Emile Zola information was usually from one, or a few sources, which often proclaimed that the information was the "truth", as it was seldom challenged, until Zola.
In the Life of Emile Zola the audience gets to experience a somewhat fictionalized story of Zola (Paul Muni). Emile Zola, a novelist and critic, frequently struggled to make a living before he wrote the successful novel Nana, which dealt with prostitution. Throughout his career he wrote several masterpieces such as Germinal and the Downfall. Each of Zola's literary contributions was heavily influenced by the social struggle of the French people, which was highly criticized by authorities. Some of his novels where even banned due to their controversial issues as they were released at the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, Zola persevered and continued to write novels depicting the social and political truth of French society, which he loved and adored.
Throughout the years Zola gained weight and wealth, as he ironically became one of the people who he frequently described with contempt in his novels. This was the result of the acquired wealth, which gave Zola an opportunity to live a life of leisure and delight. In his blissfulness he forgot the world around him, as he drifted into a complacent mind frame. His old friend the painter Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) criticized his neglectful attitude towards the French society, as he promised not to write when has moved south. During this period when Zola was more occupied with finding a fresh lobster at the local market there was a legendary military trial in regards to an officer named Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) who appeared to the society to have committed the shameful act of treason.
The truth was unknown to the world, as generals and other high-ranking officers had decided that Dreyfus was guilty due to his ethnicity. It was an anti-Semitic approach that led this innocent man into suffering years of imprisonment on the Devil's Island of the South American coast. Dreyfus' wife insisted on her husband's innocence, as she finally approached Zola for his help when she had documents proving Dreyfus' innocence. Initially Zola leaned on his complacency, but a quick reminder from a glimpse of his friend Cezanne led him to take on the French Army and the biased court system of France. Unfortunately, it lead Zola to escape imprisonment by traveling across the English Channel and make London his temporary home while continuing to write about the unjust French legal system and the French military's error.
William Dieterle directs a masterful story in Life of Emile Zola, which grabs the audience with an inspiring affect that stirs an internal motivation to help the fight against injustice in a cerebral and peaceful manner. In addition, the film has a strong historical perspective as the film was released a couple of years before World War II and during a period when several million Jews were persecuted in Nazi-Germany. Ultimately, Life of Emile Zola ended up winning three Oscars of its 10 nominations. Yet, the Oscars do not disclose the monumental value of the film, which offers a truly unique cinematic experience that the studio company Warner Brother's will have a hard time to match.
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