MOVIE · 1937
The Life of Emile Zola
Drama116 min
Émile Zola rises from a struggling writer in 19th-century Paris to a celebrated novelist whose success has left him settled and politically quiet. Paul Muni is Zola, first making his name with books about the city’s harsher corners, then pulled back into public life when Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) is condemned as a spy. As pleas for help reach him and signs of anti-Semitism surround the case, Zola publishes a public accusation that puts the French establishment on notice and lands him in court. The film follows the writer’s collision with the Dreyfus Affair and the national uproar around it.
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