Build a movie plot around this: When is this set? 19th century
A:
Set in the mid through late 19th century, it depicts Zola's friendship with Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne, and his rise to fame through his prolific writing, with particular focus on his involvement late in life in the Dreyfus affair.Struggling writer Emile Zola (Paul Muni) shares a drafty Paris attic with his friend, painter Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff). A chance encounter with a street prostitute (Erin O'Brien-Moore) hiding from a police raid inspires his first bestseller, Nana, an expose of the steamy underside of Parisian life.Other successful books follow. Zola becomes rich and famous; he marries Alexandrine (Gloria Holden) and settles down to a comfortable life in his mansion. One day, his old friend Cezanne, still poor and unknown, visits him before leaving the city, and tells Zola that with his success he has become complacent, a far cry from the zealous reformer of his youth.Meanwhile, a French secret agent steals a letter addressed to a military officer in the German embassy. The letter confirms there is a spy within the top French army staff. With little thought, the army commanders decide that Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) is the traitor, is courtmartialed and imprisoned on Devil's Island in then French Guyana.Later, Colonel Picquart (Henry O'Neill), the new chief of intelligence, discovers evidence implicating as the spy Major Walsin-Esterhazy (Robert Barrat), but he is ordered by his superiors to remain silent to avert official embarrassment and is quickly reassigned to a distant post.Years go by. Finally, Dreyfus's loyal wife Lucie (Gale Sondergaard) pleads with Zola to take up her husband's cause. Zola is reluctant to give up a comfortable life, but she brings forth new evidence to pique his curiosity. A letter is published in the newspaper accusing the army of covering up the monstrous injustice. Zola barely escapes from an angry mob incited by military agents provocateurs.As expected, he is brought up for libel. His attorney, Maitre Labori...