Plot Intro
In the late-1800’s, Emile Zola (Paul Muni) was a hugely prolific and successful writer. The French equivalent of Charles Dickens, many of his novels were dedicated to exposing corruption and hypocrisy in society at the time. Then, in 1894, a Jewish-French soldier named Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), is wrongfully found guilty of providing military secrets to (wait for it…) GERMANS! He was banished to French Guiana, despite clear evidence of his innocence. Zola springs to Dreyfus’ assistance and risks his career and his liberty to save him.
This was a tough DVD to track down. The only freely available copy that could be played in the UK (and cost under £25) was on eBay, shipped over from China, and had a full Chinese menu (kudos to me for working out how to put on the English subtitles!) The subtitles were also fraught with spelling and grammar mistakes. But The Life of Emile Zola has turned out to be exactly the film I’ve been waiting for in this project- an obscure, little-known winner which turns out to be a hidden gem.
On one level, it’s the “One just man against a corrupt society” tale. I’m a sucker for similar films such as Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Twelve Angry Men, A Man for All Seasons and Philadelphia, so it’s no surprise that Emile Zola had a knee-jerk liberal like me completely enthralled.
But on another level, it’s a stark warning against blind populist hate towards a particular people or person just because the authorities say they are bad. An admonition against letting social injustice happen due to your fear of speaking out. In 1937, with Hitler fully in power, and a post-Depression disenfranchised Europe falling into the onslaught of war, no film could have been more pertinent. Cavalcade discussed these topics in 1933, but Emile Zola attacks with full force. It’s stirring stuff, and Paul Muni’s lead performance is impassioned and transcendent. I gave a mental cheer after his big climactic speech in a courtroom (and who DOESN’T love a big climactic speech in a courtroom?!).
I couldn’t help but make comparisons to today’s society too. Dreyfus’ Judaism is hinted at (“Jew” is seen in writing once, and never spoken), but would have contributed towards society’s bias against him. We have a similar problem today in the far-right’s excessive condemnation of Islam. Also, the military’s desperate attempts to hide their corruptions and misjudgements which would humiliate and expose them can be easily likened to Trump’s blustering administration. Emile Zola became a poignant viewing not only in light of the society who lauded it at the time, but in light of the current political climate too. It has what, in my opinion, every Oscar winner should have- important lessons that still strike a chord today.
Politics aside, however, this is an inspirational film. I now have an inexplicable desire to write a best-selling series of novels about society and then rescue a victim of injustice from imprisonment. It’s the first film in our Oscars tour that has sent me through an entire spectrum of emotions, from anger, to sorrow, to total jubilation (leaving me almost exhausted). It’s slick, coherent and momentous, but above all, it’s relevant, unlike the patchier films of the ’30’s.
Watch it, I implore you.
Highlight
Zola’s big courtroom speech, exposing corruption and desperately appealing to the authorities’ sense of honour. It’s long, but it’s immense and important to be listened to.
Lowlight
Some awkward subtitle work from whoever put this DVD together.
Mark
10/10
This is not a very good film. The film footage is grainy and stilted, the language trite and over-exaggerated, and the courtroom scene is a poor foreboding of the superb courtroom scenes yet to come over the next decades (think Scent of a Woman, A Man For All Seasons). In fact all the facets of it add up to what is a slightly ponderous and certainly overwritten two hours.
What saves it is the story. Because it’s actually a cracking, and most importantly - true, story. Emile Zola is a French author of a series of hugely important novels that reflect the worries of his time, just as Dickens did over in London. We see him travel through his times of poverty to his rich and successful lifestyle which he abandons to fight this particular cause of injustice. Coming as it does during the rise of anti-Semitism and Hitler’s power in Germany, the fact this is about a Jew who is unfairly attacked by the military, legal courts and the State does not go unnoticed.
It’s a universal story of power and corruption being beaten by truth, which is the basis of many great films. But what it has in story, it lacks in pretty much everything else. The acting isn’t particularly wonderful - and the acting styles are so outdated that I found myself cackling at the dramatic poses they elongate themselves into. It’s not terrible, but it’s not hugely engaging, and there’s far too many speeches all through the thing.
The film builds to a courtroom speech which was kind of expected, and I was pushing for it to be a real corker, with lots of fire and brimstone. But what we got was Paul Muni (famous for starring in biographies) doing some shouting about truth and freedom which could have been edited down to about two minutes and retained all the information given. I see in it the trail being laid to far more powerful court scenes through the years, but this one isn’t a winner. Nor is the film itself.
It’s fun to notice the Hollywood actors of the time weaving their careers around each other. Paul Muni starred in a film (the same year as he did this) with Luise Rainer - who you may remember was in last week’s The Great Ziegfeld. And we’re seeing actors names appear in each other’s films, rendering the idea that 1937’s Hollywood wasn’t that big a pool of talent. I’m interested to see how this carries on as we go into the ‘40s.
My overall impression is that it’s not awful - and it’s not dull - but it is overwritten and the scenes that are intended to stun you into awe and anger actually come over as so on-the-nose that they’re almost comedic (when the innocent captain is captured he’s actually playing soldiers with his kids, for God’s sake).
Highlight
The fact that Hollywood produced a film directly challenging anti-semitism in response to Hitler’s rise is pretty awesome.
Low light
The fact that it pointlessly replaced Zola’s INFAMOUS headline ‘J’accuse’ with ‘I Accuse!’ because apparently cinema-goers couldn’t work that one out. Huh.
Mark
4/10
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