The Life of Émile Zola

Who was Émile Zola? When I was in University studying literature, both American and European, the name Émile Zola never came up in my classes. We studied the works of Fitzgerald and Dickens, Victor Hugo and Robert Louis Stevenson, and many, many more. Zola’s works never got addressed. Yet Émile Zola was a proficient writer in late 19th century France. His works challenged societal norms of the time and got him into more than a little trouble with those who wished to censor him. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. He also was a key proponent for the release and exoneration of falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus. The film The Life of Émile Zola follows Émile from his humble beginnings as a writer right up to his sudden and unfortunate death.

In 1862 Paris, struggling writer Émile Zola (Paul Muni) shares an attic apartment with impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (Vladimir Sokoloff). His fiancée Alexandrine (Gloria Holden) procures him a desk job at a bookshop but the publication of his provocative novel The Confessions of Claude arouses the anger of the police and his employer who insists he stop writing along these lines. Émile quits his job instead, refusing to compromise his values and work. He witnesses many injustices in French society including overcrowded slums and unsafe mining practices but it isn’t until a chance encounter with a street prostitute hiding from the police that he gets inspired to write what would become his first bestseller. His new book, Nana, is a steamy exposé on the underside of Parisian life and is viewed as salacious and vulgar but also highly popular amongst the readers. Suddenly Zola is no longer poor and nearly destitute. 

Despite being repeatedly told not to, Zola continues writing about controversial subjects including a book, The Downfall, that is a scathing look at the French commanders’ mistakes and lack of unity that led to the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. His writings make him rich and famous, he marries Alexandrine, and moves into a mansion. Cézanne, still poor and unknown, accuses him of complacency and ends their friendship before moving out of the city. 

Elsewhere in Paris an intercepted letter with military secrets for the German embassy confirms that there is a spy amongst the officers. With barely any thought into the matter the commanders decide that Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a jew, is the traitor and they publicly court-martial him and imprison him on Devil’s Island in French Guiana. Later, when new evidence is found that exonerates Dreyfus, the commanders elect to bury the evidence, forge more evidence against him, and reassign the officer who found the exonerating evidence to a remote post all in the name of protecting the public’s opinion on the army. The wife of Dreyfus, in possession of said exonerating evidence brings it to Zola in the hopes he can use his influence to publish the truth and force the army to admit what they did and free her husband. Zola, knowing that tackling this cause could have harsh consequences and reluctant to lose his comfortable life, eventually accepts and publishes an open letter in the papers accusing the commanders of what they have done. Zola knows that the only way to get the truth out to the people is to invite a libel suit so the evidence can be presented in his defense.

Paul Muni was a chameleon on film and stage, disappearing into his roles through a combination of intense study of whomever he was portraying and make-up effects that he perfected from childhood growing up in the Yiddish theater in Chicago. He could play virtually anybody and make it convincing. Paul’s performance as Émile Zola is an incredibly nuanced one, deceptively subtle which is perhaps the reason he lost the Academy Award to Spencer Tracy for the flashier, more bombastic performance in Captain’s Courageous. Tracy is good in that movie but Muni brings a little something extra here, small mannerisms and a sense of resignation, especially when approached by Dreyfus’s wife, that just ring true to character.  His co-star, Joseph Schildkraut, did, however, win the Oscar for the unfairly imprisoned Dreyfus. His screen time is fairly limited and is mostly of him getting frustrated and proclaiming his innocence. His big moment to shine comes when his wife visits him in prison prior to him shipping out to Devil’s Island. He desperately wishes to comfort her but the  guards will not permit any physical contact. The pain and discipline are at war on his face as he urges her not to disobey the guards and try to come to him.

This movie feels like two different films spliced together. The first is about the struggling author who finally makes it big and the second is the story of a great injustice that will eventually get exposed. Either story could have been fleshed out enough to make a full movie and been satisfying in its own right. The two together paint a picture of the realities of Parisian life during this time period. Émile straddles both social statuses during his lifetime and it is understandable that he not wish to return to his previous station by taking on a cause that could cost him everything. Had we not had the first half of the movie it would be difficult to convince us why he would eventually risk his position and his freedom for such a cause. It is important that we see his principles in action well before we see those principles put to the ultimate test. This gives us a clearer and cleaner motive for his actions and why he fights so hard for a man he’s never met, even though it costs him his freedom and also his citizenship for a while.

Once the evidence finally does come to light, Dreyfus is exonerated and Zola is free to return to his home the final tragedy plays out on screen. Émile dies from a carbon monoxide leak on the eve of Dreyfus’s reinstatement in the army four years after having been imprisoned. In reality Dreyfus had to confess to take advantage of a pardon and was not fully exonerated until four years after Zola’s death. To make things more cinematic all the details leading up to Dreyfus’s full exoneration are left out and simplified along with the streamlining of the timelines. This is typical Hollywood dramatizing the facts which is fine. I always say never look to a movie for historical facts and this film is no different. The broad strokes are there and those wishing to learn more about what really happened can always find that information pretty easily; It’s all readily available.

The Life of Émile Zola is a masterstroke of historical dramatization. Both times I watched it, once over twenty years ago and again today, I have been motivated to track down his prose and read some of it, especially his first big hit, Nana. He was a fascinating man who had principles, even though those principles often put him at odds with his government. This film gives just a glimpse into the man who challenged societal norms and, later, social injustices and saved the reputation, and the life, of an innocent man. This is a fascinating time in French history that showcases the corruption that can come in the guise of protecting the people’s trust in those that govern them. It also showcases the very real story of one man who risked it all to do what was right. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Henry Blake (won)

Best Director: William Dieterle

Best Actor: Paul Muni

Best Supporting Actor: Joseph Schildkraut (won)

Best Writing, Screenplay: Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and Norman Reilly Raine (won)

Best Art Direction: Anton Grot

Best Music, Score: Max Steiner, awarded to Leo F. Forbstein

Best Sound, Recording: Nathan Levinstein

Best Writing, Original Story: Heinz Herald and Geza Herczeg

Best Assistant Director: Russ Saunders

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Release Date: August 11, 1937

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Paul Muni, Gloria Holden, Gale Sondergaard and Joseph Schildkraut

Directed By: William Dieterle