Vive la France!
Added 10/27/2009
If you don't know who Emile Zola is, you should! See this movie and learn! And Paul Muni never fails to deliver! A wonderful movie!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Worlds collide!
Added 9/1/2009
William Dieterle ( who also directed the cult movie "The Devil and Daniel Webster" ) translated to the screen the life of this emblematic French writer, the great author of the Naturalism genre.
Along his life he portrayed and pictured like any other of his contemporaries, the dramatic and multiple social injustices of a society who still had not recovered from the several ethic injures of the bloody consequences of 1789.
The Dreyfus affair was for Zola, vehicle for him to demonstrate his social sensibility around this resonant event that shocked the whole civilized world by then and now.
The reckless boldness through which Dreyfus was accused in order to preserve the integrity and the status quo's high command's official institution about a visible case of internal espionage aroused a scandal that overcame all the imaginable boundaries. It was a true slap on the face of the legality corpus. The arduous defense assumed by Zola is the central nerve of this memorable film.
Paul Muni -one of my twenty greatest American actors ever- is overwhelming in this role as well as the rest of the cast. The excellent recreation of a shameful true life drama!
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"Truth is marching on and will not be stopped"
Added 6/11/2007
I was amazed at the power of this "old" movie. Made in 1937, in black and white, obviously, and acted in the over-the-top style that was in vogue in those days (pre-Actors Studio). Yet, dated though some of the aspects of the film are, the message is timeless and certainly is apt for this moment. I won't retell the story, as others here have done a good job and many readers will already know the events on which the film is based. It's certainly worth seeing and pondering how the message applies to today. Zola said, in the end, "Truth is marching on and will not be stopped." Let's all drink to that!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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May be the first "accidental" death of a government gad fly?
Added 2/27/2007
What struck me was the closeness of the death of Emile Zola to
the release of Dreyfus. In more modern terms this fellow Zola reminds one of Upton Sinclair in America who was called a muck raker
and hated by many companies for his exposing horrible practices in the meat packing industry.
For showing the corrupt underbelly of French society Zola was loved by the poor and downtrodden and hated by an upper class of extreme wealth and influence.
The existence of a widening class structure in America would say that we need men like Zola to be appreciated as they were in 1937.
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Made me want to read his books.
Added 6/24/2005
This is a superbly acted, fantastically written, and impressively staged production about an enormous humanitarian subject. Look far and wide and there are not many films that deal with justice and human callousness with quite as much conviction as this excellent film. Paul Muni, as usual, is spectacular. This, along with "I was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", are MUST SEE films that will reinvigorate your faith in the validity of American cinema!
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Vive la France!
Added 10/27/2009
If you don't know who Emile Zola is, you should! See this movie and learn! And Paul Muni never fails to deliver! A wonderful movie!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Worlds collide!
Added 9/1/2009
William Dieterle ( who also directed the cult movie "The Devil and Daniel Webster" ) translated to the screen the life of this emblematic French writer, the great author of the Naturalism genre.
Along his life he portrayed and pictured like any other of his contemporaries, the dramatic and multiple social injustices of a society who still had not recovered from the several ethic injures of the bloody consequences of 1789.
The Dreyfus affair was for Zola, vehicle for him to demonstrate his social sensibility around this resonant event that shocked the whole civilized world by then and now.
The reckless boldness through which Dreyfus was accused in order to preserve the integrity and the status quo's high command's official institution about a visible case of internal espionage aroused a scandal that overcame all the imaginable boundaries. It was a true slap on the face of the legality corpus. The arduous defense assumed by Zola is the central nerve of this memorable film.
Paul Muni -one of my twenty greatest American actors ever- is overwhelming in this role as well as the rest of the cast. The excellent recreation of a shameful true life drama!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"Truth is marching on and will not be stopped"
Added 6/11/2007
I was amazed at the power of this "old" movie. Made in 1937, in black and white, obviously, and acted in the over-the-top style that was in vogue in those days (pre-Actors Studio). Yet, dated though some of the aspects of the film are, the message is timeless and certainly is apt for this moment. I won't retell the story, as others here have done a good job and many readers will already know the events on which the film is based. It's certainly worth seeing and pondering how the message applies to today. Zola said, in the end, "Truth is marching on and will not be stopped." Let's all drink to that!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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