By the Grace of God

The victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests who were seen so fleetingly but left such a poignant impression in the Oscar-winning Spotlight take centerstage in the French film By the Grace of God. Another fact-based story, this one begins at the time Spotlight was being filmed, in 2014. That’s when a banker in Lyon, France, discovers the priest who assaulted him 30 years earlier is still ministering to children, despite the Catholic Church’s assurances, decades earlier, that the prelate had been reassigned.

The banker, Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud), takes his complaint to the bishop of Lyon, who makes sympathetic gestures but ultimately does nothing. The movie’s narrative later passes to another victim who doesn’t know Alexandre, and then to a third man — giving writer-director Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool) a chance to focus on what Spotlight only hinted at: the impact of childhood sexual exploitation on the victims as adults, and on their relationships with their parents, spouses, and children, as well as on their careers and mental and physical health.

The most heartbreaking performance belongs to Swann Arlaud, as the third point-of-view character, a man so fragile that his every scene is fraught with anxiety, as much the viewer’s as the character’s own.

Swann Arlaud in By the Grace of God.

The film starts slowly, with a lot of documents read aloud in voiceover (taken from the real records of the case), making it seem more docudrama than narrative film. But as the case quickly builds and the pool of victims enlarges, it becomes a gripping drama that uses a real-life pursuit of criminal justice to explore the dynamics of several French families of differing character and social status.

With a pulsing soundtrack and warm, velvety cinematography, By the Grace of God is a landmark achievement in humanizing this difficult subject and just as gripping as Spotlight.

The case is ongoing, with several of the Catholic authorities depicted having sued to stop the film’s release in France in February. They failed; the movie won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival and was a hit in Europe.

The title comes from a quote by the bishop of Lyon, who said at a press conference that the church was shielded from criminal responsibility for most of the priest’s alleged infractions “by the grace of God,” referring to the statute of limitations. He immediately tried to walk that back, as the phrase goes, but the slip was telling. It would also be telling to report what has happened in the case since the release of the movie, but I’ll leave that for you to discover on Google after you see it. And see it you must.

(For a more detailed account of the creation and impact of the movie, read the interview with director Francois Ozon on The Guardian’s website. After you see the movie.)

Grade: A-minus. Not rated, but PG-13 equivalent. Opens November 8 at the Grail Moviehouse.

Photos: Courtesy of Music Box Films

Melvil Poupaud in By the Grace of God.