Editing The Life of Emile Zola (section)

==Plot==
Set in the mid through late 19th century, the film depicts Émile Zola's early friendship with [[Post-Impressionism|Post-Impressionist]] painter [[Paul Cézanne]] and his rise to fame through his prolific writing. It also explores his involvement late in the [[Dreyfus affair]].

In 1862 Paris, struggling writer Zola shares a drafty Paris attic with Cézanne. His fiancée Alexandrine procures him a desk clerk job at a bookshop, but he is soon fired after he arouses the ire of his employer and an agent of police with his provocative novel ''The Confessions of Claude''. He then witnesses many injustices in French society, such as a crowded river slum, unlawful mining conditions and corruption in the army and government. Finally, a chance encounter with a street prostitute hiding from a police raid inspires his first bestseller, ''[[Nana (novel)|Nana]]'', an exposé of the steamy underside of Parisian life.

Despite the chief censor's pleading, Zola writes other successful books such as ''The Downfall'', a scathing denunciation of the French commanders' blunders and disunity that led to a disastrous defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870. He becomes rich and famous, marries Alexandrine and settles down to a comfortable life in his mansion. One day, his old friend Cézanne, still poor and unknown, visits him before leaving the city. He accuses Zola of having become complacent because of his success and terminates their friendship.

An intercepted letter for the German embassy confirms that there is a spy within the French general staff. With little thought, the army commanders decide that Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, is the traitor. He is court-martialed, publicly degraded and imprisoned on [[Devil's Island]] in French Guiana.

Later, Colonel Picquart, the new chief of intelligence, discovers evidence implicating Major [[Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy|Walsin-Esterhazy]], an infantry officer of Hungarian descent, as the actual spy. However, Picquart is ordered by his superiors to remain silent to avert official embarrassment, and is quickly reassigned to a remote post.

Four years have passed since Dreyfus's degradation. His loyal wife Lucie pleads with Zola to take up her husband's cause. Zola is reluctant to surrender his comfortable life, but Lucie brings forth new evidence to pique his curiosity. He publishes an [[J'accuse (letter)|open letter]] known as "''J'accuse''" in the newspaper ''L'Aurore'' accusing the high command of covering up the monstrous injustice, and it causes a firestorm throughout Paris. Zola barely escapes from an angry mob incited by military [[Agent provocateur|agents provocateurs]] as riots erupt in the city streets.

As expected, Zola is charged with [[libel]]. His attorney Maitre Labori does his best against the presiding judge's refusal to allow him to introduce evidence about the Dreyfus affair and the perjury and biased testimony committed by all the military witnesses, except for Picquart. Zola is found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison and a 3,000-[[French franc|franc]] fine. He reluctantly accepts his friends' advice flee to London in order to continue the campaign on behalf of Dreyfus.

With the demand for justice reaching a worldwide level, a new French administration finally proclaims that Dreyfus is innocent, and those responsible for the coverup are dismissed or commit suicide. Walsin-Esterhazy flees the country in disgrace. After his return to Paris, Zola dies of accidental [[carbon monoxide poisoning]] caused by a faulty stove the night before the public ceremony in which Dreyfus is exonerated and inducted into the [[Legion of Honour|Legion of Honor]]. His body is buried in the [[Panthéon]] in Paris and he is given the farewell of a hero and warrior.