The Life of Emile Zola

1937
Approved
1h 56m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

9.3K

YOUR RATING

Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.

Play trailer4:19

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28 Photos

Biography Drama

The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

9.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 3 Oscars
- 8 wins & 7 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 4:19

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Photos28

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List

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This was the first film to break double digits in Academy Award nominations, receiving an astonishing ten nods.

Goofs
The young Zola is shown sharing a garret with Paul Cezanne. While they were friends, they did not live together in Paris. Also, they are shown as being friends long after Zola published the novel L'Oeuvre, whose main character is based on Cezanne. In fact, the book ended their friendship.

Quotes
Émile Zola: Paul.
Paul Cezanne: Hmm.
Émile Zola: Will you write?
Paul Cezanne: No. But I'll remember.

Connections
Featured in Breakdowns of 1938 (1938)

Soundtracks
La Marseillaise
(1792) (uncredited)
Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Variations often in the score

User reviews76

Review

Featured review

7/10

Immersive and historically interesting

I only watched this because it won an Academy Award for best picture (1937). I didn't expect it to be very good, so my intention was to watch it over two nights, but I watched it in one sitting, because it was quite immersive.

The movie could be described as being comprised of two parts - the first, a snapshot of who Emile Zola was, and the second, his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair (which I knew nothing about until I watched this movie).

I thought this movie was immersive and historically interesting. I enjoyed it.