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2l6 CELLULOID
I have long wanted to probe the connection that lies between Zola and the cinema, to discover why so many of his novels have been found peculiarly suitable for the screen, and, above all, to investigate the bond, strong, and, I believe, of the greatest significance, that exists between the champion of Naturalism and the so-called Naturalistic directors of the Soviet left-wing cinema.
Apart from a long survey of his novels, each of which is of great length, demanding endless perseverance from a reader accustomed to-day to books of comparative brevity, investigation is now made easily possible by the recent publication of Matthew Josephson's " Zola and His Time."1 Therein is made clear much that is of extreme value to the student of the cinema by a revelation and close analysis of Zola's methods of working. There will be found matter that both strengthens and explains the bond between the Naturalism of Zola and that of various contemporary film directors, between the scientific methods of technique that are common to both.
The foundation of Naturalism was Truth. The spring of Zola's attitude was an exact, truthful, unshrinking observation of nature and man. Inasmuch that without analysis, without method, without deliberate truth there could be no politics any more than literature possible at that time. In fact, no art, no social culture, no purity of living could exist without scientific method. According to Taine, perhaps the most distinguished thinker in France at the period,
1 " Zola and his Time/' by Matthew Josephson. (Victor Gollancz.)