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God Needs Men

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God Needs Men
Film poster
Directed byJean Delannoy
Written byJean Aurenche
Pierre Bost
Based onUn recteur de l'Île de Sein by Henri Queffelec
Produced byPaul Graetz
StarringPierre Fresnay
Madeleine Robinson
Daniel Gélin
CinematographyRobert Lefebvre
Edited byJames Cuenet
Music byRené Cloërec
Production
company
Transcontinental Films
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox
Release date
  • 4 October 1950 (1950-10-04)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

God Needs Men (French: Dieu a besoin des hommes) is a 1950 French historical drama film directed by Jean Delannoy and starring Pierre Fresnay, Madeleine Robinson and Daniel Gélin. The film is based on a 1944 novel Un recteur de l'Île de Sein by Henri Queffelec. It was shot at the Billancourt Studios in Paris. Initial location shooting took place on the Île de Sein off Finistère in Brittany, but the majority of the film was staged on mainland Brittany. The film's sets were designed by the art director René Renoux.

God Needs Men was originally due to be the French entry at the 1950 Venice Film Festival but it was withdrawn due to fears that its subject might offend the Catholic Church.[1] However, due to its popularity, including amongst Catholics, it was accepted for screening at the Festival anyway.[2] At the 1951 Berlin Film Festival it won the Special Prize for an Excellent Film Achievement.[3]

Plot

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On a rugged, poverty stricken island off the coast of Brittany many of the inhabitants spend their time as wreckers preying on shipwrecks. Their wildness forces the parish priest to take refuge on the mainland. A fisherman steps forwards to take his place and tries to uphold religion on the island.

Locations

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With the exception of the prologue, the exterior scenes were shot in Plouguerneau and not on the island of Sein, due to the distrust of the inhabitants of the latter.[4] As noted by actor Pierre Fresnay, most filming was done on a set for the island village built in Pantin, a northeastern suburb of Paris.[1]

Cast

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Dieu a besoin des hommes". Télé 7 Jours (421): 30–31. 13–19 April 1968.
  2. ^ Johnson p.295
  3. ^ "1st Berlin International Film Festival: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  4. ^ Photographie, L'Œil de la (5 February 2020). "Jean-Philippe Charbonnier : Les très rudes heures de l'île de Sein". L'Œil de la Photographie Magazine (in French). Retrieved 21 July 2025.

Bibliography

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  • Johnson, William Bruce. Miracles & Sacrilege: Roberto Rossellini, the Church and Film Censorship in Hollywood. University of Toronto Press, 2008.
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