Movie #416 ........................."The Life of Emile Zola"

Movie #416 "The Life of Emile Zola" --- until I saw this movie, I never really heard of this writer Zola. I saw this movie because it was one of the 4 Movies that won Best Picture for Academy Awards that I have not seen, and now I'm down to 2. Once again, this is just a mediocre film to me, a viewer in 2011. I can understand its value at the time. This Zola is very brave --- a real gutsy writer who will go to his death to prove the government is corrupt --- he delights in writing about it. And this passion causes ultimately his death (an adversary closes up the chimney one evening and he dies of carbon monoxide poisoning for his belief that a soldier by the name of Dreyfus, who has served several years in prison, is innocent of the accusation that he committed treason) His final speech is not nearly as inspirational as others like Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" or Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird," but this is, after all, a 1937 film, and for that reason it does a good job of getting this character across --- all his passions and all his talents and all his beliefs. A nice biography of someone I knew nothing about ---- and Paul Cezanne was a best friend, so I learned a little bit more of him, as well. Wish there was an Emile Zola now!




I gave it 3 stars
The Life of Emile Zola
(1937) NR
Paul Muni stars as French writer and social activist Emile Zola in a biopic that won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (snagged by Joseph Schildkraut, who plays Capt. Alfred Dreyfus).The film tracks Zola through his friendship with Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff), his efforts to expose social ills that plagued France's lower classes, and his battle against the anti-Semitic scapegoating of Dreyfus.
Genre: Classic Dramas, Biographies, Political Dramas
This movie is: Inspiring
Format: DVD