''He Who Must Die'' (french: Celui qui doit mourir) is a 1957 French-Italian film directed by

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...

. It is based on the novel ''

Christ Recrucified ''Christ Recrucified'' (Ο Χριστός Ξανασταυρώνεται, 'Christ is Recrucified') is a 1954 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Plot summary The story concerns the attempts of a fictional Greece, Greek village community deep in Anatol ...

'' (also published as ''The Greek Passion'') by

Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kazantzakis ( el, ; 2 March ( OS 18 February) 188326 October 1957) was a Greek writer. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years. Kazantzakis's n ...

. It was entered into the

1957 Cannes Film Festival The 10th Cannes Film Festival was held from 2 to 17 May 1957. ''Nights of Cabiria'' by Federico Fellini, '' La casa del ángel'' by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, ''A Man Escaped'' by Robert Bresson, and ''The Seventh Seal'' by Ingmar Bergman were enter ...

Plot

In a Turkish-occupied Greek village shortly after World War I, villagers put on a Passion Play, with ordinary people taking the roles of Jesus, Peter, Judas, etc. Staging the play leads to them rebelling against their Turkish rulers in a way that mirrors Jesus's story.

Cast

Jean Servais Jean Servais (; 24 September 1910 – 17 February 1976) was a Belgian film and stage actor. He acted in many 20th century French cinema productions, from the 1930s through the early 1970s. He was married to Gilberte Graillot, and later act ...

as Photis * Carl Möhner as Lukas *

Grégoire Aslan Grégoire Aslan (born Krikor Kaloust Aslanian; 28 March 1908 – 8 January 1982) was a Swiss-Armenian actor and musician. Early life Krikor Kaloust Aslanian ( hy, Գրիգոր Գալուստի Ասլանյան) was born in Switzerland or in Con ...

as Agha *

Gert Fröbe Karl Gerhart "Gert" Fröbe (; 25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988) was a German actor. He was best known in English-speaking countries for his work as Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film '' Goldfinger'', as Peachum in ''The Threepenny Ope ...

as Patriarcheos *Teddy Bilis as Hadji Nikolis * René Lefèvre as Yannakos *

Lucien Raimbourg Lucien Raimbourg (1903–1973) was a French film, stage and television actor. He appeared in the original performance of Samuel Beckett's '' Waiting for Godot''.Blair p.421 Selected filmography * '' L'affaire est dans le sac'' (1932) - Le clie ...

as Kostandis *

Melina Mercouri Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri (, 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994) was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician. She came from a political family that was prominent over multiple generations. She received an Academy Award nomination a ...

as Katerina *

Roger Hanin Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ...

as Pannagotaros *

Pierre Vaneck Pierre Vaneck (born Pierre Auguste Van Hecke; 15 April 1931 – 31 January 2010) was a French actor. During his career, he won a Molière Award in 1988 and received a César Award nomination in 2009. Biography Son of a Belgian army officer, Pie ...

as Manolios *Dimos Starenios as Ladas *

Nicole Berger Nicole Berger (born Nicole Gouspeyre,''Le Vrai Nom des stars'' de Michel Bracquart - M.A. Editions - 1989 12 June 1934 – 13 April 1967) was a French actress. Biography Berger was born in Paris. She had a brief theatrical career, particularly ...

as Mariori *

Maurice Ronet Maurice Ronet (13 April 1927 – 14 March 1983) was a French film actor, director, and writer. Early life Maurice Ronet was born Maurice Julien Marie Robinet in Nice, Alpes Maritimes. He was the only child of professional stage actors Émile Rob ...

as Michelis *

Fernand Ledoux Fernand Ledoux (born Jacques Joseph Félix Fernand Ledoux, 24 January 1897, Tirlemont – 21 September 1993, Villerville) was a French film and theatre actor of Belgian origin. He studied with Raphaël Duflos at the CNSAD, and began his ...

as Grigoris *

Joe Dassin Joseph Ira Dassin (; 5 November 1938 – 20 August 1980) was an American–French singer-songwriter and actor. He was the son of film director Jules Dassin. Early life Dassin was born in New York City to American film director Jules Dassin (19 ...

as Benos

Reception

The film received a generally positive response. It was favorably reviewed in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', and received awards in communist eastern Europe (Dassin was well known for his left-wing views), and even some liberal Catholics praised it.

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described it as "brutally realistic", praising the "daring sort of candor and relentless driving" in the way it works out the logic of the plot, and he also praised all of the cast.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:He Who Must Die 1957 films 1957 drama films Adaptations of works by Nikos Kazantzakis French drama films Italian drama films 1950s French-language films French black-and-white films Films directed by Jules Dassin Films based on Greek novels Films set in Greece Films shot in Crete 1950s Italian films 1950s French films