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Special Features
- Dramatic short "The Littlest Diplomat"
- Musical short "Romance Road"
- Cartoon "Ain't We Got Fun"
- Audio-only bonus: 5/8/39 Lux Radio Theater production starring Paul Muni
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Still as potently relevant today as it was in 1937, The Life of Emile Zola is a marvelously entertaining slab of Hollywood social issue-mongering. The life of the French writer is broadly sketched in the early going, but the film settles into its groove with the Dreyfus affair: the scandalous railroading of a military captain for treason, which shook France to its foundation in the 1890s. The elderly Zola's gradual involvement in the case, climaxing with his electrifying "J'accuse!" essay and subsequent trial for libel, is the heart and soul of the picture.
Warner Bros.' version of this story, directed by William Dieterle, carries over the passion (and hokum) of the previous year's Story of Louis Pasteur. It also retains that film's leading man, Paul Muni, who turns in an elaborately theatrical performance. The result was a box-office smash and three Oscars, for best picture, script, and supporting actor (Joseph Schildkraut, who plays Dreyfus). While the film occasionally creaks with Hollywood artifice, the clarion call of truth and outrage come through surprisingly strongly--indeed the film looks prescient as a warning about governments closing ranks to cover up mistakes. Mostly sidestepped is the anti-Semitic vitriol of the campaign against Dreyfus (his Jewishness is referenced only in a written report glimpsed for a moment). This is an old-fashioned barnburner that encourages the viewer to fan the flames. --Robert Horton
Product Description
The Life of Emile Zola episodically explores the career of the novelist who championed the cause of France's oppressed. Zola (Paul Muni) is a hugely successful French author who risks all his success and comfort to come to the defense of the unjustly jailed Capt. Dreyfus (Oscar winner Joseph Schildkraut). Winner of three Oscars overall-and of immense critical and popular success-this distinguished film is a must-see portrait of a life that's "a moment of the conscience of man." Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. Year: 1937 Director: William Dieterle, Irving Rapper Starring: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden, Donald Crisp, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Henry O'Neil, Morris Carnovsky, Louis Calhern.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Freedom is often taken for granted in our technologically advancing society, as a political and social complacency seems to have been generated through an overwhelming level of obligation to professional careers and other domestic responsibilities. People are also literally crushed by an ever-growing media tsunami through cable TV, abundance of Internet news sites, and newspapers. In this depth of information the individual simply drowns, as vital information is often smudged with star-studded gossip in the non-stop news tickers. Mass information could therefore function as a form of misinformation when essential information tries to reach the light of public attention. Some of this information could be in regards to decisions politicians and other authority figures make, which could affect the rights of the people. Thus, it has become essential for people to learn how to filter information. However, in the days of Emile Zola information was usually from one, or a few sources, which often proclaimed that the information was the "truth", as it was seldom challenged, until Zola.
In the Life of Emile Zola the audience gets to experience a somewhat fictionalized story of Zola (Paul Muni). Emile Zola, a novelist and critic, frequently struggled to make a living before he wrote the successful novel Nana, which dealt with prostitution. Throughout his career he wrote several masterpieces such as Germinal and the Downfall. Each of Zola's literary contributions was heavily influenced by the social struggle of the French people, which was highly criticized by authorities. Some of his novels where even banned due to their controversial issues as they were released at the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, Zola persevered and continued to write novels depicting the social and political truth of French society, which he loved and adored.
Throughout the years Zola gained weight and wealth, as he ironically became one of the people who he frequently described with contempt in his novels. This was the result of the acquired wealth, which gave Zola an opportunity to live a life of leisure and delight. In his blissfulness he forgot the world around him, as he drifted into a complacent mind frame. His old friend the painter Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) criticized his neglectful attitude towards the French society, as he promised not to write when has moved south. During this period when Zola was more occupied with finding a fresh lobster at the local market there was a legendary military trial in regards to an officer named Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) who appeared to the society to have committed the shameful act of treason.
The truth was unknown to the world, as generals and other high-ranking officers had decided that Dreyfus was guilty due to his ethnicity. It was an anti-Semitic approach that led this innocent man into suffering years of imprisonment on the Devil's Island of the South American coast. Dreyfus' wife insisted on her husband's innocence, as she finally approached Zola for his help when she had documents proving Dreyfus' innocence. Initially Zola leaned on his complacency, but a quick reminder from a glimpse of his friend Cezanne led him to take on the French Army and the biased court system of France. Unfortunately, it lead Zola to escape imprisonment by traveling across the English Channel and make London his temporary home while continuing to write about the unjust French legal system and the French military's error.
William Dieterle directs a masterful story in Life of Emile Zola, which grabs the audience with an inspiring affect that stirs an internal motivation to help the fight against injustice in a cerebral and peaceful manner. In addition, the film has a strong historical perspective as the film was released a couple of years before World War II and during a period when several million Jews were persecuted in Nazi-Germany. Ultimately, Life of Emile Zola ended up winning three Oscars of its 10 nominations. Yet, the Oscars do not disclose the monumental value of the film, which offers a truly unique cinematic experience that the studio company Warner Brother's will have a hard time to match.
In the Life of Emile Zola the audience gets to experience a somewhat fictionalized story of Zola (Paul Muni). Emile Zola, a novelist and critic, frequently struggled to make a living before he wrote the successful novel Nana, which dealt with prostitution. Throughout his career he wrote several masterpieces such as Germinal and the Downfall. Each of Zola's literary contributions was heavily influenced by the social struggle of the French people, which was highly criticized by authorities. Some of his novels where even banned due to their controversial issues as they were released at the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, Zola persevered and continued to write novels depicting the social and political truth of French society, which he loved and adored.
Throughout the years Zola gained weight and wealth, as he ironically became one of the people who he frequently described with contempt in his novels. This was the result of the acquired wealth, which gave Zola an opportunity to live a life of leisure and delight. In his blissfulness he forgot the world around him, as he drifted into a complacent mind frame. His old friend the painter Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) criticized his neglectful attitude towards the French society, as he promised not to write when has moved south. During this period when Zola was more occupied with finding a fresh lobster at the local market there was a legendary military trial in regards to an officer named Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) who appeared to the society to have committed the shameful act of treason.
The truth was unknown to the world, as generals and other high-ranking officers had decided that Dreyfus was guilty due to his ethnicity. It was an anti-Semitic approach that led this innocent man into suffering years of imprisonment on the Devil's Island of the South American coast. Dreyfus' wife insisted on her husband's innocence, as she finally approached Zola for his help when she had documents proving Dreyfus' innocence. Initially Zola leaned on his complacency, but a quick reminder from a glimpse of his friend Cezanne led him to take on the French Army and the biased court system of France. Unfortunately, it lead Zola to escape imprisonment by traveling across the English Channel and make London his temporary home while continuing to write about the unjust French legal system and the French military's error.
William Dieterle directs a masterful story in Life of Emile Zola, which grabs the audience with an inspiring affect that stirs an internal motivation to help the fight against injustice in a cerebral and peaceful manner. In addition, the film has a strong historical perspective as the film was released a couple of years before World War II and during a period when several million Jews were persecuted in Nazi-Germany. Ultimately, Life of Emile Zola ended up winning three Oscars of its 10 nominations. Yet, the Oscars do not disclose the monumental value of the film, which offers a truly unique cinematic experience that the studio company Warner Brother's will have a hard time to match.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
In 1936, Paul Muni was on a roll. He had just won an Oscar for best actor in THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR, so it was no surprise that a year later, director William Dieterle chose him for the lead in THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA. Zola, as Muni plays him, is a man who brings to mind a stuffy but morally centered grandfather type who sees his mission in life as the only man who is willing to stand up for what is right and root out corruption and evil when all others turn away claiming one valid excuse after another.
TLEZ is your standard but exceptional Hollywood bio-movie then so popular. Typically, such films begin 'en medias res', thrusting the hero into a series of lesser adventures that prefigure his later, more heroic ones. Zola and Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) are two poverty-stricken friends sharing a dumpy apartment in Paris. Each dreams of using his talent, Cezanne with art, Zola with words, to shake a complacent world with the immediacy of their need to force others to re-evaluate some given bedrock assumptions. Zola is a mudracker, but he cannot find it in himself to lead the fight alone. At critical points in the movie, others step in and out of his life to fire his conscience. Zola and Cezanne meet a streetwalker, Nana, who pours out a tale of economically blighted woe, the result of which is to fire Zola's imagination to write a novel exposing the corruption of a society that allowed such otherwise decent women to go astray. The first half of the movie sets up the character of Zola as one who, when convinced of the rightness of his cause, would boldly put in print inflammatory words that more than once would place him in peril. The second half focuses on the relation that Zola had with Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew who was a captain in the French army. Zola and Dreyfus never met, but their interaction set the stage for some political fireworks that rocked the very core of the French government. Dreyfus was wrongfully accused of spying for the Germans, and a kangaroo court-martial found him guilty of treason and sent him to Devil's Island as punishment. In historical truth, Dreyfus's Jewishness was a significant factor in arousing France's widespread anti-Semitism against him. Director Dieterle sidesteps this controversy by using the word 'Jew' only once, and then briefly in a personal file on Dreyfus. At first, Zola does not care very much for Dreyfus' protestations of innocence. However, when the wife of Dreyfus makes a personal appeal to him for help, he agrees and the movie then turns into a battle between Zola and a corrupt, entrenched French High Command who are collectively willing to see Dreyfus rot on Devil's Island to save their own skins. Zola's 'I Accuse' harangue rings with the sincerity of a man who is willing to take on the Powers That Be to save a country's honor when those very corrupt Powers argue that their own sense of honor requires the opposite. Louis Calhern leads a fine supporting cast as one of the lying officers who see honor only in lying to the French public about their own shortcomings. Joseph Schildkraut as the accused Dreyfus brings considerable dignity to the role of a man who is forced to endure a public and humiliating ritual of dishonoring. By the film's end, the audience can see that virtue and honesty are not enough to ensure the ongoing vitality of a country's nobility. For that, the occasional pecking gadfly is needed. Zola was such a gadfly. THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA serves to remind us that such gadflies are often in short supply, especially when they are most needed.
TLEZ is your standard but exceptional Hollywood bio-movie then so popular. Typically, such films begin 'en medias res', thrusting the hero into a series of lesser adventures that prefigure his later, more heroic ones. Zola and Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) are two poverty-stricken friends sharing a dumpy apartment in Paris. Each dreams of using his talent, Cezanne with art, Zola with words, to shake a complacent world with the immediacy of their need to force others to re-evaluate some given bedrock assumptions. Zola is a mudracker, but he cannot find it in himself to lead the fight alone. At critical points in the movie, others step in and out of his life to fire his conscience. Zola and Cezanne meet a streetwalker, Nana, who pours out a tale of economically blighted woe, the result of which is to fire Zola's imagination to write a novel exposing the corruption of a society that allowed such otherwise decent women to go astray. The first half of the movie sets up the character of Zola as one who, when convinced of the rightness of his cause, would boldly put in print inflammatory words that more than once would place him in peril. The second half focuses on the relation that Zola had with Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew who was a captain in the French army. Zola and Dreyfus never met, but their interaction set the stage for some political fireworks that rocked the very core of the French government. Dreyfus was wrongfully accused of spying for the Germans, and a kangaroo court-martial found him guilty of treason and sent him to Devil's Island as punishment. In historical truth, Dreyfus's Jewishness was a significant factor in arousing France's widespread anti-Semitism against him. Director Dieterle sidesteps this controversy by using the word 'Jew' only once, and then briefly in a personal file on Dreyfus. At first, Zola does not care very much for Dreyfus' protestations of innocence. However, when the wife of Dreyfus makes a personal appeal to him for help, he agrees and the movie then turns into a battle between Zola and a corrupt, entrenched French High Command who are collectively willing to see Dreyfus rot on Devil's Island to save their own skins. Zola's 'I Accuse' harangue rings with the sincerity of a man who is willing to take on the Powers That Be to save a country's honor when those very corrupt Powers argue that their own sense of honor requires the opposite. Louis Calhern leads a fine supporting cast as one of the lying officers who see honor only in lying to the French public about their own shortcomings. Joseph Schildkraut as the accused Dreyfus brings considerable dignity to the role of a man who is forced to endure a public and humiliating ritual of dishonoring. By the film's end, the audience can see that virtue and honesty are not enough to ensure the ongoing vitality of a country's nobility. For that, the occasional pecking gadfly is needed. Zola was such a gadfly. THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA serves to remind us that such gadflies are often in short supply, especially when they are most needed.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By Nix Pix
Format:DVD
In a lucrative and highly successful career that saw him play everyone from Spanish savior, Juarez to a cutthroat gangster in Scarface, character chamelion Paul Muni became French novelist Emile Zola in "The Life of Emile Zola" (1937). This is perhaps the most legitimate and faithful - certainly, the most serious and stirring - biographical film to emerge from a major Hollywood studio, and so quite unlike anything that had ever been seen on the screen until that time. Warner spared no expense in retelling Zola's early and lingering success as an author and tragic death in a house fire. Embarking in idyllic 1862's Paris with Zola's initial fame, the film delves compassionately into the morbid curiosity and imfamous trial known as the Dreyfus Affair. Encouraged by confidant and contemporary, painter Paul Cezanne (Vladamir Sokoloff) to dispell his own comfortable success and, to stand up for truth and justice, Zola decides to take on the case of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), a war hero unjustly accused of disclosing military secrets and imprisoned on Devil's Island.
There are so many powerful and haunting moments in this bio that it's hard to pinpoint exactly where its greatness derives. But it is perhaps best exemplified by the dynamic interactions between Zola and Cezanne. These lead into the beautfully realized and justly celebrated court room summation that, once seen, is not to be forgotten.
"There are times when the most courageous thing is to be cowardly" exclaims Zola...indeed. The quiet rectitude of "The Life of Emile Zola" is a distinct pleasure for classic cinema fans - neither embellished or flag waving, but just as emotionally satisfying and twice as likely to be championed well into the next century. The film's definite slant toward critiquing anti-Semitism is now a time capsule; forshadowing the growing angst of nations and Nazi terror that was to engulf Europe and cast the world into its second great war. However, William Dieterle's direction is timeless, with slick panache that makes all his points but never heavy-handed or without style befitting a classic biography. The score, by luminary composer Max Steiner, is striking and poignant. In short, "The Life of Emile Zola" is befitting of the Oscar for Best Picture and very much a relic from Hollywood's golden age worthy of considerable and repeated re-examination.
Warner Home Video's DVD is a reason to stand up and cheer. While there are age related artifacts present throughout, and some scenes suffer from considerable grain, the overall image quality is solid, sharp and beautifully contrasted. The gray scale has been impeccably rendered with deep, rich blacks and, for the most part, solid clean whites. Certain brief sections appear to have been duped in from second or third generation elements, but, keeping in mind that the film is 70 plus year old, such lapses should easily be forgiven. The audio is mono but has been presented at an adequate listening level. A slight hiss is detected occasionally. Save a complete and costly digital restoration, no more could have been expected by the good people at Warners on this transfer. It is head and shoulders above anything the film has looked like in years. Extras include a rare audio only recording of Muni doing Zola on radio, a dramatic, and, a cartoon short subject. The one disappointment here is that no time was taken to do a featurette on the making of this classic film. Regardless, it comes highly recommended by this reviewer.
There are so many powerful and haunting moments in this bio that it's hard to pinpoint exactly where its greatness derives. But it is perhaps best exemplified by the dynamic interactions between Zola and Cezanne. These lead into the beautfully realized and justly celebrated court room summation that, once seen, is not to be forgotten.
"There are times when the most courageous thing is to be cowardly" exclaims Zola...indeed. The quiet rectitude of "The Life of Emile Zola" is a distinct pleasure for classic cinema fans - neither embellished or flag waving, but just as emotionally satisfying and twice as likely to be championed well into the next century. The film's definite slant toward critiquing anti-Semitism is now a time capsule; forshadowing the growing angst of nations and Nazi terror that was to engulf Europe and cast the world into its second great war. However, William Dieterle's direction is timeless, with slick panache that makes all his points but never heavy-handed or without style befitting a classic biography. The score, by luminary composer Max Steiner, is striking and poignant. In short, "The Life of Emile Zola" is befitting of the Oscar for Best Picture and very much a relic from Hollywood's golden age worthy of considerable and repeated re-examination.
Warner Home Video's DVD is a reason to stand up and cheer. While there are age related artifacts present throughout, and some scenes suffer from considerable grain, the overall image quality is solid, sharp and beautifully contrasted. The gray scale has been impeccably rendered with deep, rich blacks and, for the most part, solid clean whites. Certain brief sections appear to have been duped in from second or third generation elements, but, keeping in mind that the film is 70 plus year old, such lapses should easily be forgiven. The audio is mono but has been presented at an adequate listening level. A slight hiss is detected occasionally. Save a complete and costly digital restoration, no more could have been expected by the good people at Warners on this transfer. It is head and shoulders above anything the film has looked like in years. Extras include a rare audio only recording of Muni doing Zola on radio, a dramatic, and, a cartoon short subject. The one disappointment here is that no time was taken to do a featurette on the making of this classic film. Regardless, it comes highly recommended by this reviewer.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
AWESOME MOVIE!!
A great story. I love it on tv, that is why I ordered, only disappointment was that it went up on price. I wanted to buy one more for a friend, but couldn't . Read more
Published 7 days ago by Diana F. Batista
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great story
Never heard of this man until I saw the film and proceeded to read Zola's works. What talented and good man that worked
tirelessly for the rights of the human... Read more
tirelessly for the rights of the human... Read more
Published 1 month ago by C K Jagger
5.0 out of 5 stars
Muni is Great
I have most of Muni's films. Get all you can. He has great presence as an actor and always entertaining.
Published 2 months ago by James J. Golke
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie
Way ahead of its time. Great story, relevant for today with abuse of power and political corruption. Pul Muni was great.
Published 2 months ago by Btuch P
4.0 out of 5 stars
Life of Emile Zola
Another social commentary film. How high ranking officials ( in this case army generals) can look for a scape-goat to further their own importance and how one man with courage... Read more
Published 5 months ago by David Lamble
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Old Movie - Academy Award Winner 1937
We have been going down the list of Academy award winning movies. This winner was from 1937 and was a geat old movie. Now up to 1940. Next!
Published 6 months ago by Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've just discovered Paul Muni
Hard to believe movies THIS great existed before I was even born! The title is misleading. Though the film is about Zola,it,specifically, deals with his later life when he involved... Read more
Published 13 months ago by N. L. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic and Relevant for All Time
This is one of the greatest films. Incredible acting (after the first 10 minutes!), incredible script, a MUST SEE for any person who understands the true meaning of humanity.
Published on January 20, 2011 by K. Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars
Award Winner
This movie won an Academy Award many, many years ago. It is great being able to watch these movies - thanks to DVD's.
Published on June 15, 2010 by B. Loosbrock
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lacking one ingredient
When this movie was first shown (1937), Hitler held absolute power in Germany, and his agenda and anti-Semitism were well known. Read more
Published on May 26, 2010 by Roger Long
