• Film: By the Grace of God

• • Art for Progress
  • Film
• 5 years ago
• Music Box Films Known mainly for his psycho-sexual dramas (Under the Sand, Swimming Pool), François Ozon's new film, By the Grace of God, is a surprisingly straightforward and relatively fast-paced crime drama based on recent news events that still dominate headlines in France. The film details the efforts of three men from Lyon to seek justice, having been sexually abused as children by the same priest . Well-acted, rock-solid and even suspenseful, the movie is reminiscent of 2015’s Oscar-winning Spotlight, about reporters from the Boston Globe investigating a similar cover-up by the Archdiocese of Boston. In By the Grace of God, it’s the victims themselves who initiate and carry out much of the detective work, at the same time confronting their own religious beliefs (or lack of), and residual trauma. It’s a powerful and poignant movie highlighting the struggle of sexual-abuse victims in a country where the Catholic Church is a hugely dominant institution. We first meet Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud), a successful, religious father of five, as he learns that Father Bernard Preynat, the local priest who abused him years ago, is still working with children. Through a series of letters (voice-overs convey the copious correspondence that set events into motion), he arranges a meeting with the now elderly Preynat (Bernard Verley). The priest doesn’t deny the allegations and admits that there were many other victims, defending himself by asserting that he ha[...]
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