The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Actors:
Robert Barrat (actor),
Maurice Black (actor),
Stanley Blystone (actor),
Egon Brecher (actor),
Louis Calhern (actor),
Morris Carnovsky (actor),
Donald Crisp (actor),
Robert Cummings Sr. (actor),
Frank Darien (actor),
Harry Davenport (actor),
Gilbert Emery (actor),
Paul Everton (actor),
Franklyn Farnum (actor),
Lumsden Hare (actor),
Arthur Aylesworth (actor),
Plot: Fictionalized account of the life of famed French author Emile Zola. As portrayed in the film, he was a penniless writer sharing an apartment in Paris with painter Paul Cezanne when he finally wrote a best-seller, Nana. He has always had difficulty holding onto a job as he is quite outspoken, being warned on several occasions by the public prosecutor that he risks charges if he does not temper his writings. The bulk of the film deals with his involvement in the case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus who was falsely convicted of giving secret military information to the Germans and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devils Island. Antisemitism played an important role in the real-life case but is hardly mentioned in the film. Even after the military found definitive evidence that Dreyfus was innocent, the army decided to cover it up rather than face the scandal of having arbitrarily convicted the wrong man. Zola's famous letter, J'Accuse (I Accuse), led to his own trial for libel where he was found guilty and forced to flee to England. Dreyfus was eventually exonerated and restored to his military rank.
Keywords: 1860s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 19th-century, 20th-century, anti-semitism, army, artist, author
Genres:
Biography,
Drama,
Taglines: Here Is True Greatness ! He'll Hold You In Silence As Deep As Your Emotions !
Quotes:
Émile Zola: Life is tricky.
Émile Zola: [reading from his letter "I Accuse"] I shall tell the truth. Because if I did not, my nights would be haunted by the spectre of an innocent man expiating under the most frightful torture a crime he never committed.
La Rue: We've been watching your writings, young man. You're a troublemaker! These articles of yours, attacking our leading men of letters, the arts! Criticizing the civic authorities!::Émile Zola: Perhaps you know of something better for me to criticize?
Émile Zola: At this solemn moment, in the presence of this tribunal, which is the representative of human justice, before France, before the whole world, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent! By all that I have won, by all that I have written to spread the spirit of France, I swear that he is innocent. May all that melt away; may my name perish if Dreyfus be not innocent. He is innocent.
Émile Zola: Why didn't Picquart say anything?::Lucie Dreyfus: Colonel Picquart is a good officer. He kept silent at the request of his superiors.::Émile Zola: You mean they KNEW and they ordered him to suppress the truth? Why,that's monstrous!
Émile Zola: What does it matter if an individual is shattered - if only justice is resurrected?
Minister of War: Books? Books? I don't read books!
Paul Cezanne: [Farewell goodbye to Zola] I won't write, but I'll remember.
