BY THE GRACE OF GOD & SPOTLIGHT: Studies in abuse and faith

There is a moment early in By The Grace Of God when Alexandre Guerin, a prosperous executive, father of four and devout Catholic, is walking up a spiral staircase for an interview after informing church officials that a priest who abused him when he was a child, is now working with children at his church. As he trudges up the stairs, the camera looking down on him conveys a feeling of both Sisyphean effort and dizziness, because what Guerin embarks on becomes a crisis of conscience for both himself and the church in which he believes.

Francois Ozon’s film is in some ways a dry story, much of it told in voice-overs of epistolary material, much like hearing a sermon. But the dryness is script is moistened by subtle but powerful visuals, often in contrasts, which create for it a vibrantly emotional stage. The overwhelming power of the church, and its spiritual beauty, are shown through its buildings, soaring cathedrals and mundane offices; characters are revealed though their settings at home and work, and most chilling, the bureaucratic nature of the way in which the church seeks to mollify and silence Alexandre are things you see and sense before the exact nature of the business is revealed. This is most true of the victims, because at heart this is a film primarily about them, about their abuse, yes, but more about what the experience of coming forward against the church does to them. You see it in their demeanor, in the clothes they wear, in their shaved/unshaven faces: even Father Preynat, the abuser, is a…