Wonderful character development!

Sadly Over-hyped

Great Film overall

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I recognised the title of this film as one of the films featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I didn't really know what it would be about, but I was hoping it would be a deserved entry. Based on the true story, it is the fictionalised account of the life of famed 19th century French novelist, playwright and journalist Emile Zola (Oscar nominated Paul Muni). Zola was a penniless writer sharing an apartment in Paris with painter Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) until he wrote and published his bestselling novel Nana. Zola has struggled to hold a job as he is outspoken and has been warned several times by a public prosecutor he could face charges if he does not moderate his writings. The main plot of the film is his involvement in the court case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Oscar winning Joseph Schildkraut) who is wrongly accused of giving secret military information to the Germans, he is falsely convicted as being a traitor, court marshalled and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. The prosecution and defence question the various people involved in the case, and Zola plays his part, but sufficient evidence from the military is found that proves Dreyfus is innocent. In the end the army decided to cover it up rather than face the scandal of having arbitrarily convicted the wrong man, and Zola dies of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty stove, the day before Dreyfus is exonerated. Also starring Gale Sondergaard as Lucie Dreyfus, Gloria Holden as Alexandrine Zola, Donald Crisp as Maitre Labori, Erin O'Brien-Moore as Nana, Robert Barrat as Major Walsin-Esterhazy, John Litel as Charpentier, Henry O'Neill as Colonel Georges Picquart, Morris Carnovsky as Anatole France and Louis Calhern as Major Dort. Muni is very similar to Lon Chaney, in that he always played parts under makeup, he gives a very good performance putting on the accent and being eccentric, and Schildkraut deserved his Oscar for the captain professing his innocence, I will admit the political stuff goes a little over my head, but I found the courtroom scenes and other bits interesting, I can see I suppose why it got the accolades it did, overall it's a worthwhile biographical drama. It won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay, and it was nominated for Best Director for William Dieterle, Best Writing, Original Story, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Recording, Best Assistant Director Best Music for Leo F. Forbstein and Max Steiner. Good!

Okay, before I begin my review, here's a quick little correction I have to make regarding my Great Ziegfeld review...twice: This film is not a Musical. I apologize for the mix-up; they have 2 things in common: A similar-sounding title (I always got them mixed up), and a specific genre they supposedly share (again, I always got them mixed up). And that genre is the Biopic, or Character Study as it were.And speaking of which, it was actually better than I thought going into this thing, but I don't know if I'd call it good. I'd certainly watch it over Cavalcade or The Great Ziegfeld, but how many times? What is it about? Well, the title is quite self-explanatory in that light, only trimmed down for our benefit (unlike Ziegfeld), but the question one should ask in this case is, who is Emile Zola? Well, Emile Zola was a French Author and his prolific writing career, including his friendship with French painter Paul Cezanne, and his involvement in the Dreyfuss Affair in which (an espionage-related scandal during the Militarized state of 19th Century France) he plays a part in until his untimely death. There's more to the story, obviously, but if you're curious, you could do one of 2 things: Research on the matter yourself, or see the movie.Now is it worth seeing? Well, I'll get to that later. The movie is written okay, it is directed okay, heck, even the acting is pretty darn good for its time. I can at least see why it won Best Picture in 1937, and it is a rather important film in the Biopic genre as it led to the Academy's recognition of the genre in a serious light. The cinematography and art direction is pretty good too (for the time), but it at least does well in the most important elements of the Character Study: The acting and the writing. However, the film, while important, is quickly dwarfed 4 years later by a film regarded as the Best ever made (which I'll cover later).With all that said and done, I would probably only recommend this film to hardcore film buffs, fans of character studies as a whole, and those who might be interested in, in more ways than one, the actual life of Emile Zola. This film does have an audience to this day; in fact, back in 2000, it was one of 25 films selected by the National Film Registry for immortalization in the Library of Congress. So it's not like the film is awful or unwatchable. Personally, it's not my thing, but people like it okay, so why ruin it for others. Take it for what it's worth; I'll give it a 6 out of 10.

The Life of Emile Zola is a good if rather bland and simplistic film biography of the famous author, with a great performance by Paul Muni. It gives the basic facts about Zola's life, even as it omits many of the social issues he confronted and fictionalizes other aspects of his life.The strongest part of the film is Paul Muni's performance. He succeeds in embodying Zola both as a young man and an older, established author, bringing a genuine sense of passion to the role. There are also good performances by Joseph Schildkraut and Gale Sondergaard. The film starts out quite well, focusing on how Zola struggled against government censors and the writing of Nana. However, the film then skips a large portion of Zola's life, signified by a series of book titles going by the screen. I would have enjoyed more information about this section of Zola's life.The plot then flashes forward to the Dreyfus Affair, handling it with middling results. Although the film makes us feel for Dreyfus and his family, it fails to deal with anti-Semitism in a meaningful way. The film only twice hints at the role of Dreyfus's ethnicity / religion in the case, once when we see the word "Jew" written on his personnel file, the second time when an effigy of Dreyfus is shown as a Jewish stereotype. Given what was going on in Europe in 1937, it would have been topical for the film to examine those issues.Also, the film fictionalizes of a number of things, particularly towards the end. It gives the impression that Dreyfus was immediately exonerated after being freed, when that actually happened several years later. Furthermore, when Zola dies, the film depicts a nation uniformly in mourning, when actually many of Zola's enemies publicly rejoiced.In the end, The Life of Emile Zola is a good classic style biopic that may seem dated and simplistic to modern tastes.

This movie beat out such magnificence pictures as Captains Courageous, The Good Earth, and Lost Horizon to win the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1938. I think that was stretching it.What is truly great here is the story it tells, starting about a half-hour into the picture: Zola's involvement in the overturning of the condemnation of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus for treason. That condemnation was one of the great stains on French history, an example of anti-Semitism and rabid militarism. When the movie tells that story, all hearts are moved.But are they moved by the WAY this picture tells that story, or just by the story itself? It is the same question one might pose concerning The Diary of Anne Frank. The difference can be seen in a true masterpiece like Shindler's List, where the story, again, is deeply moving, but the TELLING of the story is equally masterful.I don't think Dieterle's telling of Zola's involvement of the Dreyfus story is particularly remarkable. Muni gives a very fine performance as Zola, certainly. But I don't think this script, which won an Academy Award for best writing, or Dieterle's direction of it, for which he got an Academy Award nomination, are particularly good, much less great.If you don't know the story, watch this, most certainly. It doesn't disgrace it. But if you know such great movies as Captains Courageous, Lost Horizon, and The Good Earth (it was a good year for Paul Muni), don't expect this to live up to those.It must have been a strange year for the Academy: they also gave Louise Rainer the Best Actress Award, when she was easily bested by all four of her competitors: Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth, Greta Garbo in Camille (yes, overdone, but great even so), Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born, and Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas, a weeping but powerful picture. I also don't see how Joseph Schildkraut got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his small portrayal of Dreyfus in this picture against Roland Young as Topper, or even H.B. Warner in Lost Horizon. Why the Prisoner of Zenda got almost shut out of the Oscars that year I don't understand either.