It’s 3am in the UK at the time of writing, and Film 4 is currently showing the silent film The Godless Girl (1929) about

a girl leading a student atheist group who clashes with the male leader of a christian club. When the conflict causes a death, both are sent to a reform school, where they fall in love.
VirginMedia telly guide

Apart from the rather sappy sentiment of the film (although not really unexpected from the bible-thumping Cecil B DeMille) I’ll continue to watch (I started about 20 minutes into the film and missed the circumstances of the aforementioned death).

I must admit that I think that this is the first fictional film I’ve seen about atheism and I’m frankly astonished that this one is from the 1920s, although I’m not too surprised at DeMille’s treatment of the subject. Perhaps he made it to make a point (see the spoiler).

Spoiler after the cut.

Spoiler: for the epilogue, apparently the girl returns to christianity.

Don’t they all?

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