Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 20
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 6
Well-written, well-meaning and solidly acted, the film may ultimately be more earnest than interesting.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1
Well-written, well-meaning and solidly acted, the film may ultimately be more earnest than interesting.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,908
The second of Paul Muni's biographical films for Warner Bros., the Oscar-winning The Life of Emile Zola is by far the best, even allowing for the dramatic license taken with the material. When first we meet French novelist and essayist Zola, he is starving in a Parisian garret with his painter friend, Paul Cezanne. Each time Zola attempts to write "the truth," he is stymied by governmental censors. Still, he is able to achieve both fame and fortune with the publication of "Nana," an unardorned
Unrated, 1 hr. 57 min.
Oct 2, 1937 Wide
Feb 1, 2005
MGM Home Entertainment
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (6) | DVD (8)
Last week Warner Brothers released a movie which is probably the outstanding prestige picture of the season. It is also one of the best shows.
Top CriticThe film is destined to box office approval of the most substantial character. It is finely made and merits high rating as cinema art and significant recognition as major showmanship.
This act of altruism on behalf of the brothers Warner was rewarded with the best picture Oscar for 1937; it isn't so much bad as utterly, magisterially bland.
A great and valuable and stirring film document.
It's a compelling film that demands no previous knowledge of the title character in order to derive satisfaction from the story.
A piece of pap.
A moving evocation of an era and a heroic deed.
One of Warner's earnest biopics of great men, with good acting from Paul Muni in the lead and Joseph Schildkraut who won a Supporting Actor Oscar as the wrongly accused Captain Alfred Dreyfus
A recurring theme among Oscar winners, Life of Emile Zola's anti-oppression topic rings loudly in the ears of all those who would use war as an excuse to abridge freedoms.
The patchy, overly earnest screenplay as well as the typically shapeless direction of William Dieterle keep calcifying the movie into an arid diorama.
Carefully mounted, well directed and acted, but basically the sort of well-meaning pap out of which Oscars are made.
The Life of Emile Zola may seem somewhat dated today, its methods and manner a little old-fashioned, and its style rather quaint.
If you sit down to watch The Life of Emile Zola, skip the first third of the movie, because frankly, the beginning blows goats.
Along with George Arliss, Paul Muni was Hollywood's designated portrayer of Great Men.
The film finds its focus and its heart when Schildkraut is banished to Devil's Island, and then it can hardly be faulted.
Typical, solidly-mounted simplistic biopic from William Dieterle.
The dialogue is perhaps overwritten, but moments are superb between Zola and his roommate artist Cezanne as they talk of government and injustices.
This look at how screwed up the French legal system is can be harrowing.
The strong story line is enhanced by intelligent dialogue and first rate performances by a stellar cast
A curiously uninvolving biopic.
This film is based on the life/work of French writer and activist Emile Zola. It starts out as a stand biopic, but then becomes a stirring courtroom drama, as it focuses on one of the most important events of Zola's life: his condemnation of antisemitism that led to the wrongful accusement of army officer Alfred
March 14, 2011Super Reviewer
Creaky biopic of an interesting and worthwhile story. Keeping in perspective when it was made the film is not bad, Muni a fine actor when not in costume, say in Chain Gang, brings the hambone out as Zola ages and many of the rest of the cast are stiff and overly grand. However it is incredible that this middling film
August 6, 2007
Super Reviewer
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