Happy Birthday to Lucy Liu, Julie Harris, Penelope Spheeris, Cathy Lee Crosby, Frank Reicher, Stuart Greer, Maria Callas, Sybille Schmitz, Linda Redfearn and Vilgot Sjoman! Last night, I saw The Life of Emile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937; 9/10) and three extras from its DVD (all 1937): the two dramatic shorts (both Bobby Connolly) The Littlest Diplomat (7/10) and Romance Road (6/10) and the cartoon Aint We Got Fun (Tex Avery; 7/10). I really enjoyed this biopic of the French writer constantly after the truth but always having to contend with governmental censorship. Looking up Paul Muni, I was surprised to discover he only appeared in 23 films and got Best Actor Oscar nominations for both his first (The Valiant, 1927) and last (The Last Angry Man, 1959) appearance, as he both split his acting duties with Broadway and had to deal his whole life with a rheumatic heart condition. I have only seen this and his work in Scarface, but hes definitely one of the finer actors of the period. The films inaccuracies aside, this film is heartily recommended, with a director and actor doing some of their best work, telling a story thats still very relevant in 2014. Lucy Liu, the beautiful actress whos 46 today, deserves my Film Club Props salute, and my Five Stars for cinematic excellence, all from The Life of Emile Zola, are: --Actor: Paul Muni --Actress: Gale Sondergaard --Director: William Dieterle --Cinematography: Tony Gaudio --Soundtrack: Max Steiner. Tonight: Probably Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice, 1931), Made in Britain (Alan Clarke, 1982) and a rewatch of Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974). All the best this evening, from Film Club! =)
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:00:46 +0000
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