On October 21, the Harvard Film Archive hosted award-winning French film director François Ozon for a public screening of his new film Grâce À Dieu (By the Grace of God). The film follows the lives of three men who were abused as children by a magnetic and well-liked Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, Bernard Preynat (played by Bernard Verley).
At the screening, Ozon explained that he originally had no plan to make a film about pedophilia and clerical abuse. In his career he has developed a reputation for making dark comedies with a libertine view of sexuality. This time around, he had wanted to make a film that examines the “fragility and emotional aspects of men.” After hearing about the fight that male victims of clergy abuse were leading against predation and cover-up in the Catholic Church, he had found his subject.
The film offers a powerful testimony to the scourge of sexual abuse and its long-term effects on victims. In making the film, the survivors asked for their own version of Spotlight, the 2015 drama that detailed the Boston Globe’s investigation into clerical abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston. By the Grace of God focuses on the victims themselves and their efforts to purge the church of abuse.
The film opens with Phillipe Cardinal Barbarin (François Marthouret) exposing the Eucharist on the balcony of the cathedral in Lyons. The cathedral sits above the city, and as the cardinal processes in with the city in the background, one gets an idea of the immense power of the Archbishop of this deeply Catholic town.
We then see Alexandre (Melvin Poupaud), one of the three main characters, heading to Mass with his wife and children. A successful banker, practicing Catholic, and father to five children, all seems well with him—until a meeting with a childhood friend reminds him of the abuse they both suffered at the hands of their Catholic youth scout leader, Fr. Bernard Preynat.
After discovering that Fr. Preynat is still working with children, Alexandre writes to the Archbishop of Lyons, Phillipe Cardinal Barbarin. Alexandre believes that Barbarin is “courageous” in tackling sexual abuse. He tells his wife he is confident that Barbarin will remove Preynat from the priesthood once he hears of his abuse.
Instead, he embarks on a two-year correspondence that bears no fruit. At one point, a psychologist for the Archdiocese convinces Alexandre to meet with Preynat in order to receive an apology and work towards healing. Preynat neither denies his abusive behavior nor apologies for it, diminishing the abuse as something that happened “a long time ago” and saying that he is not responsible because he did not choose the “disease” of pedophilia. He admits that he has “always been attracted to children.”
Furious at Preynat’s failure to apologize and Cardinal Barbarin’s failure to remove Preynat from ministry, Alexandre moves beyond his isolated suffering and looks to unite with other victims to bring a case against the priest and the Archdiocese. Among Preynat’s many victims, the film focuses on François (Denis Ménochet), a middle class family man who became an anti-clerical atheist, and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud), who despite his intelligence has lived a tormented life and struggles with physical, sexual, and mental difficulties. Though each victim certainly has his own suffering, it is clear that Emmanuel’s life has been nearly wrecked by the abuse.
The men form La Parole Liberée, a group of victims who quickly become friends in their efforts to find other victims and bring Preynat’s abuse to light. Tensions rise in the group about the best methods to fight the abuse, especially between those who are Catholic and those who left the faith following the abuse. Catholic or not, they are all aware of the Archdiocese’s failure to live up to the Gospel it preaches. As we see the men move from suffering in isolation to building friendships and supporting each other in La Parole, we are perhaps reminded of the viewers of the dangers of the “lone wolf” mindset that men often employ in tackling their problems.
Ozon wanted to show the effects of abuse not only on the victims, but on their families and friends as well. Ozon referred to child abuse as “a ticking time bomb that can affect the whole family.” Alexandre’s conservative Catholic parents are worried about the social implications of “fighting” the Church, and Emmanuel’s distant father blames Emmanuel’s mother (his ex-wife) for allowing the abuse to occur. The redemptive nature of the family is shown as well. Emmanuel’s mother takes up the cause of La Parole as her own, volunteering to answer the support line. François’ mother was the one who encouraged him to go public about the abuse when he was originally apprehensive.
By the Grace of God was extremely controversial in France because of the high profile of Fr. Preynat and Cardinal Barbarin in the wake of the abuse revelations. Though the exterior scenes were filmed in Lyons, Ozon did not want to raise suspicion by requesting to film inside the churches. Instead, he filmed in Belgian churches, claiming that he was shooting a movie about friendship under a false title. The real title, Grâce à Dieu, is from a shocking remark made by Cardinal Barbarin in a 2016 press conference about the Preynat case. Because of the statute of limitations, the Cardinal said, “The majority of cases, by the grace of God, are inadmissible.”
A month after the release of the film, Cardinal Barbarin was found guilty of failing to report Preynat’s abuse, a verdict he is currently appealing. After being found guilty, he went to Rome to offer his resignation to the Holy Father. Pope Francis refused his resignation in a move that has angered many victim-survivor advocates. Bernard Preynat was found guilty in the Church’s court of abusing up to 85 boys and was dismissed from the clerical state (“defrocked”) in July. Preynat will be tried in the French civil courts later this year.
At the movie screening, Ozon explained that he left the Catholic Church as a teenager because of its “hypocrisy in sexual teachings.” He admitted that he believes in God whenever he is on airplanes, where he offers small prayers.
I add my name to those who believe Ozon succeeded in offering an unbiased retelling of the stories of the victims and of the Church. It is a powerful story of men moving out of isolation to support each other, working together to combat an evil that seems to continually plague the Mystical Body of Christ.
Though the movie is not rated by the MPAA, it would likely be rated R for language and two brief scenes of nudity (one sexual, another medical).
Featured image: Denis Ménochet, Melvil Poupaud, and Eric Caravaca in BY THE GRACE OF GOD. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
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