The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola is chiefly remembered now as the Best Film Oscar winner of 1937. It's also worth seeing though as one of the templates for the modern biopic, it pretty much set the standard for the way that future biopics would be structured and pitched. As you might guess, it follows the life of Emile Zola, a liberal 19th century French writer, but this isn't really what the film is about. People were no more crying out for a biopic about Emile Zola in the 1930s than anyone now is pining for a biopic about Stephen King; the real crux of this film is the Dreyfuss Affair - a nation-dividing miscarriage of justice in 1890s France that Zola became involved with towards the end of his life.

The creative team behind this film (the director, the writers and the actors) bring this historical event to life through a process of dramatisation (acknowledge in a pre-film disclaimer), using Zola's involvement as a way-in to the story - a framing device that brings the history alive and engages the audience through a central (and unlikely) heroic figure. It's a format that can be traced directly to the modern writer-biopic Capote, which is more about a pivotal event in the protagonist's life (and the wider historical context) than it is about the actual protagonist.

Emile Zola (Paul Muni) is a struggling but optimistic intellectual who uses the slum-dwelling lifestyle of his youth as groundbreaking material for his writing. He becomes revered and reviled as one of Paris' pre-eminent muckrakers, railing at the continuing injustices of post-revolution France. His passionate attacks on the establishment became a symbol of liberty, freedom and the fight for truth. By the film's 25 minute mark we see how far he has come before the Dreyfuss Affair - from living in the gutter, destitute and begging for money, to living materialistic opulence and laughin (almost decadently) at an extravagant dinner part with friends. Basically, he's sold out. He becomes complacent and he accepts that, in old age, he no longer has the fire and hunger of his youth. To modern viewers, this part of the film might seem overly brisk and rushed but this short summary of his journey to fame and success is a matter of expediency that allows the rest of the film to focus on the Dreyfuss Affair, it's simply setting up a context that allows us to see where Zola is coming from. It's a scripting technique that ensures the film's longevity for many more years to come. A film that featured the Dreyfuss Affair as just the third act would've seemed trite, and a film that simply started with the Dreyfuss Affair would've had no context for modern viewers to grab onto.

When Zola finally goes to bat for Dreyfuss (a military man falsely accused of treason), the French people don't want to hear it. They see it as an affront on their patriotism to attack the military institution, and Zola is pulled up in front of court for libel for daring to attack the unattackable. Zola's trial is a mockery of justice, but Zola knows this will happen, and by inviting his own trial he's dragging the Dreyfuss case into the public viewer. He's literally fighting against the system, so he needs to expose its corruption where the public can see it. As an early examination of the role of the media it's fascinating, but as a revelation of the military's use of of codified intimidation to reinforce their persecution of Dreyfuss it's positively electirc. Unfortunately, and this is partially why The Life of Emile Zola isn't the stone-cast classic it should be, it's not a perfect film due to it's unwillingness to address the anti-semitic nature of the Dreyfuss Affair. It's a kind of meta-hypocrisy for the film to condemn the hypocrisies of 19th century France whilst racistly censoring the discriminatory subtext.

Paul Muni was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for the role of Zola, and it's true that he completely disappears into the character as he was renowned for doing, but there's something a little too self-conscious about it. Muni specialised in variety throughout his celebrated career... his performances aren't neccessarily all that great unto themselves, but his talent was in his ability to take on such a wide array of disguises. He's especially unrecognisable as the older Zola - employing a vaguely English accent (I suspect this was more to disguise his American accent than an attempt to authentically depict Zola's Frenchness) and doing a slightly-irritating windbag routine. I'm not sure if this is an actual reflection of how Zola was or if Muni genuinely being annoying, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. This aside, Muni helps set the rules for future actors looking to tackle the biopic in a bid for acclaim - play the figure from youth to old age, capture the mannerisms of an iconic personage in a recognisably imitable way, and act your little heart out in those requisite scenes where figure gives a big speech about universal themes like truth and freedom.

The Life of Emile Zola is still interesting to watch as an indicator of what sort of films the Oscars love. Even 70-odd years later we still see these kinds of films being made to great fanfare... the ancestry of The King's Speech and Elizabeth can be visibly seen in The Life of Emile Zola. Regardless of this, The Life of Emile Zola is just a great story. Inevitably with these sorts of films about political injustice, the much-needed comeuppance is never enough. That's more a complement to the film's ability to mobilise and engage the viewer though, for any film to evoke that level of passion it must be doing something right.

DIRECTOR: William Dieterle
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine, Heinz Herald and Geza Herczeg, based on a biographical work on Emile Zola by Matthew Josephson.
KEY ACTORS: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden, Henry O'Neil, Robert Barrat, Vladimir Sokoloff, Donald Crisp.

RELATED TEXTS:
- The Dreyfuss Affair has been covered by several other films, including the German film Dreyfuss (1930) and it's 1931 British remake, also called Dreyfuss. Jose Ferrer starred in a late 50s retelling of the tale called I Accuse!, and Richard Dreyfuss later appeared in a 1991 television adaptation called Prisoner of Honor.
- My favourite true story courtroom drama about injustice would have to be In The Name of the Father.
- For other films that deal with anti-semitism in a more direct manner, see School Ties, Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement.
- Paul Muni starred in several biopics over the course of career - the others were The Story of Louis Pasteur, Juarez, Hudson's Bay and A Song to Remember.
- And some other films about real-life writers: Capote, Before Night Falls, Iris, The Last Station and Madame Bovary.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Joseph Schildkraut) and Best Screenplay. Also nominated for Best Actor (Muni), Best Art Direction, Best Assistant Director, Best Director, Best Music and Best Sound