SLIFF 2019 Review – BY THE GRACE OF GOD

BY THE GRACE OF GOD will screen at The Plaza Frontenac Cinema (1701 South Lindbergh Boulevard # 210 PLAZA) Sunday, Nov 10 at 8:15pm and Monday, Nov 11 at 8:00pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.Ticket information can be found HERE and HERE

François Ozon — the celebrated director of “8 Women,” “Swimming Pool,” and “Young and Beautiful” — offers a distinct change of pace from the satirically witty explorations of sexuality that comprise most of his work. Instead, in “By the Grace of God,” he mounts a gripping drama that follows three men who band together to dismantle the code of silence that continues to protect a priest who abused them decades ago. Based on events from the 2019 conviction of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon for concealing the conduct of a predatory priest, “By the Grace of God” compassionately illustrates the effects of trauma on survivors and their families in an urgent portrait of resistance that explores both the power of mobilization and the mysteries of faith. The Hollywood Reporter writes: “This is a social justice film made with purposeful conviction and a quiet, never strident, sense of indignation. It’s persuasively acted, elegantly shot, subtly scored and briskly edited to keep the dense, procedural action moving forward as the narrative baton is passed among three adult men who take the difficult step of speaking out about their boyhood experiences.”

Review by Stephen Tronicek

When something terrible has happened to you, it leaves an impression in your brain. Sometimes those things are so strong that the mark that is left seems to spoil the mood of your being. Francios Ozon’s By the Grace of God submerges you in this through its subject matter and the strength of its vetern director. Structurally, it’s a film built to wade you into it’s sickening and scarring subject matter. The film starts following the true story of Alexandre Guerin (Melvil Poupaud), a family man of devout Catholicism, revealing that he was molested as a child by a pastor at his camp Bernard Preynat (Bernard Verley). As his complaints fall on deaf ears, he takes action eventually drawing another victim Francios Debord (Denis Menochet) into the cause. Other victims soon join the pack, namely Emmanuel Thomassin (Swann Arlaud). 

This isn’t necessarily the type of story that you’d expect from Ozon, the master of shocking, sexy, lurid films such as Satire (a personal favorite) or Swimming Pool but the structure of the piece plays to Ozon’s shocking strengths. The greatness of those works came from the way that Ozon could present a piece of information and then violently recontextualize it, creating a shock within the audience. This turns out to be the great strength of By the Grace of God. Ozon may not be able to make a joke out of everything the way did in Satire, but he can sure use the audience’s violent reaction to his benefit, this time making it build. It’s like a sickness in the back of your mind created by content but also by the tone that each new section holds.

Alexandre’s is disturbing, but holds back ever so slightly. It still works within the emotional texture of a typical prestige drama. In this, it’s actually the best tonally of the three sections. It doesn’t prepare us for what’s coming. As the film moves into Francios’ section of the story, things start to be more serious. The sickening shock slowly starts to rear its ugly head, but there is still an element of hope. Then you get to Emmanuel’s. There is hope in Emmanuel’s story, but the scary intimacy of the story suddenly becomes quite clear. The film paints Emmanuel as less than a perfect person, and it shouldn’t, but it’s quite shocking to find the film dropping all its investigative aspirations and becoming a realistic and terrifying portrait of a man marred by trauma. It’s a shocking tonal shift, one that submerges the audience in a sickening state. 

By the Grace of God sinks into your soul, bringing it up on one note and poisoning it on another. It’s a tricky balance but Ozon, old pro that he is, is up to the task.