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By the Grace of God

A stupidly hot Saturday morning was a great time for the Luna Leederville preview screening of Francois Ozon's new film, By the Grace of God. This is a drama set in Lyon, based on real-life, current events surrounding the crimes of a paedophile priest, Bernard Preynat. The catholic church of Lyon and its high-ranking officials, including Cardinal Barbarin, were found to have known about his actions for some time and not acted upon this knowledge.

The film starts with one of the victims, a now 40-something family man, Alexandre, discovering that the priest who abused him was returning to work with kids in the Lyon area. This sets off a chain of emails and calls to the diocese, culminating in a weird, arranged meeting between Preynat, Alexandre and a church psychologist. The frustrating formality of the church culture in these scenes forces Alexandre's hand and he ultimately feels he needs to involve the law, rather than relying on the church to gets things done. Here's where the film takes an interesting turn by essentially removing Alexandre from the story for a huge chunk of time and leaving another victim, Francois to take up the baton. He is instrumental in creating a support group of fellow victims and this part of the story is then followed by a third victim's section. Emmanuel is the most troubled of the three and the scenes of his epilepsy and social interactions make for some awkward viewing.

The title of the film refers to a statement made by Barbarin at a press conference, where he seemed to be relieved that most of the crimes were committed outside the statute of limitations in French law. The film explores the role of the church in covering up the crimes in a similar way to Spotlight, though that film focussed more on the journalists breaking the story in Boston than on victims themselves. The relationships in the film - Alexandre and wife, Marie; Francois and his parents; Emmanuel and his girlfriend - are key. They highlight the real, natural connections made by choice, as opposed to the sickness (Preynat's own words) of the priest's actions.

Ozon had heaps of trouble bringing By the Grace of God to screens. In an interview with the Observer, he says,

“There were two court cases, but each time there has been legal action the judges have found in our favour. Fortunately.”

It appaers all the church's platitudes are just lip service, designed to placate and hinder victims and their families. Alexandre's son's final question to his father is pretty notable - "Do you still believe in god?" Ozon's decision to leave it unanswered is cleverly designed to let the viewer decide.

See also:

Another Ozon film, Swimming Pool (2003) and Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (2015).

SPOILERS IN POD!!!

Listen to "By the Grace of God" on Spreaker.

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