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Emile Zola
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Emile Zola was a French journalist and novelist known for the series of 20 novels called Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-93). Zola was a leading figure of France's literary naturalism; his novels were attacked and even banned for their frankness and sordid detail, and caused quite a bit of controversy in their day. In 1898 he incurred the wrath of officials when he published the open letter "J'Accuse," in defense of Alfred Dreyfus, an Army officer who had been convicted of treason. Zola was sentenced to prison for libel, fled to England, and was granted amnesty a few months later. He died from carbon monoxide poisoning before Dreyfus was officially exonerated.
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Emile Zola, his writings, and the social issues that inspired him are the topics of this program. Using dramatizations of portions of three of Zola’s most famous works—Les Victimes de l’Alcoolisme, Medan, and Germanal—we see how they reflected important events of Zola’s day, including the Paris Commune and the Dreyfus Affair. In French.
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One must take most Hollywood biographies with a grain, if not a handful, of salt, but The Life of Emile Zola does make a reasonable effort at accuracy and completeness. The one area significantly overlooked was Alfred Dreyfus's Jewish heritage, which the film conveniently manages to overlook, even though it was dealing with anti-Semitism. This is not surprising, given when the film was made. It would be another decade before such an issue would be addressed openly by Hollywood (in Fox's Gentleman's Agreement). Even without that, the film struck close enough to home that it would not be shown in France until 1952, the 50th anniversary of Zola's death and 15 years after the film's original release.
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Starving writer Emile Zola (Paul Muni) shares a garrett with the equally poor Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) until his fiancée Alexandrine (Gloria Holden) finds him a job in a bookstore. The censors think his work is scandalous, which loses the budding writer his position, but he soon writes Nana after interviewing a real woman of the streets (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and telling her story honestly. More controversial books exposing public scandals make Zola rich and content to the point that Cezanne decides it's time they parted company. Just as Emile is about to be inducted into special state honors, he risks his career and reputation on a reckless defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), a Jewish army officer made the scapegoat for a breach in security by unscrupulous bigshots in the general staff. Rotting on Devil's Island, Dreyfus' only champion is his faithful wife Lucie (Gale Sondergaard).
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Emile Zola was born in Paris. His father, François Zola, was an Italian engineer, who acquired French citizenship. Zola spent his childhood in Aix-en-Provence, southeast France, where the family moved in 1843. When Zola was seven, his father died, leaving the family with money problems - Emilie Aubert, his mother, was largely dependent on a tiny pension. In 1858 Zola moved with her to Paris. In his youth he became friends with the painter Paul Cézanne and started to write under the influence of the romantics.
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Emile Zola was born in Paris in 1840. His father, François Zola, was an Italian engineer with French citizenship, and his mother was Emilie Aubert. The family lived in Aix-en-Provence, in the southeast when he was three years old. Four years later, his father died, leaving his mother on a meagre pension. In 1858, the Zolas moved to Paris, where Emile became friends with the painter Paul Cézanne and started to write in the romantic style. Zola's widowed mother had planned a law career for him, but he failed his Baccalauréat examination.
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Emile Zola