By The Grace Of God opens in St. Louis Friday November 22nd at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater.
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.
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.
- 11/22/2019
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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...
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...
- 11/7/2019
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
François Ozon on By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu): “It was important to show the complexity of all these characters.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
François Ozon’s timely and relevant By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu), shot by Manuel Dacosse (Jean-François Richet’s The Emperor Of Paris) edited by Laure Gardette, and costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, stars Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud with Aurélia Petit, Josiane Balasko, Éric Caravaca, Martine Erhel, François Marthouret, Bernard Verley, Amélie Daure, Hélène Vincent, Max Libert, Nicolas Bauwens, Zuri François, Timi-Joy Marbot, and Zéli Marbot.
Alexandre Guérin (Melvil Poupaud) and François Debord (Denis Ménochet) with Gilles Perret (Éric Caravaca)
In the second half of my in-depth conversation with the director/screenwriter we discuss the complexity of the characters who are struggling to come to grips with memories from the past and the importance of the flashbacks in telling the story.
François Ozon’s timely and relevant By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu), shot by Manuel Dacosse (Jean-François Richet’s The Emperor Of Paris) edited by Laure Gardette, and costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, stars Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud with Aurélia Petit, Josiane Balasko, Éric Caravaca, Martine Erhel, François Marthouret, Bernard Verley, Amélie Daure, Hélène Vincent, Max Libert, Nicolas Bauwens, Zuri François, Timi-Joy Marbot, and Zéli Marbot.
Alexandre Guérin (Melvil Poupaud) and François Debord (Denis Ménochet) with Gilles Perret (Éric Caravaca)
In the second half of my in-depth conversation with the director/screenwriter we discuss the complexity of the characters who are struggling to come to grips with memories from the past and the importance of the flashbacks in telling the story.
- 10/25/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
François Ozon on the roles for Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud in By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu): "I decided to make this kind of relay race between these three characters." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu), starring Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud with an impressive supporting cast including Aurélia Petit, Josiane Balasko, Éric Caravaca, Martine Erhel, François Marthouret, Bernard Verley, Amélie Daure, Hélène Vincent, Max Libert, Nicolas Bauwens, Zuri François, Timi-Joy Marbot, and Zéli Marbot, had its world première at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury prize.
François Debord (Denis Ménochet), Gilles Perret (Éric Caravaca), Emmanuel Thomassin (Swann Arlaud), and Alexandre Guérin (Melvil Poupaud)
Whereas Tom McCarthy's Oscar-winning Spotlight focused on the journalistic tenaciousness of the reporters of the Boston Globe and its editor Marty Baron to expose the cover...
By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu), starring Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud with an impressive supporting cast including Aurélia Petit, Josiane Balasko, Éric Caravaca, Martine Erhel, François Marthouret, Bernard Verley, Amélie Daure, Hélène Vincent, Max Libert, Nicolas Bauwens, Zuri François, Timi-Joy Marbot, and Zéli Marbot, had its world première at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury prize.
François Debord (Denis Ménochet), Gilles Perret (Éric Caravaca), Emmanuel Thomassin (Swann Arlaud), and Alexandre Guérin (Melvil Poupaud)
Whereas Tom McCarthy's Oscar-winning Spotlight focused on the journalistic tenaciousness of the reporters of the Boston Globe and its editor Marty Baron to expose the cover...
- 10/21/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Versatile in a way that few directors at his level of recognition dare to be, prolific French auteur François Ozon follows his psychosexual thriller “Double Lover” with a multi-narrative drama based on true events. “By the Grace of God” offers a masterfully structured and sublimely acted account of a group of men reckoning with childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest neglectfully entrusted with their innocence.
While a procedural like Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” took a journalistic angle on the subject, and Pablo Larraín’s “The Club” functioned as fiery character study centered on the perpetrators, Ozon’s compassionate and ideologically balanced take on the Catholic Church’s disgraceful inaction against pedophilia within its ranks serves the victims’ stories first and foremost. The ramifications of the ongoing suffering caused by such despicable criminal acts guide the film through the lives of three distinct survivors.
Email correspondence in voice-over...
While a procedural like Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” took a journalistic angle on the subject, and Pablo Larraín’s “The Club” functioned as fiery character study centered on the perpetrators, Ozon’s compassionate and ideologically balanced take on the Catholic Church’s disgraceful inaction against pedophilia within its ranks serves the victims’ stories first and foremost. The ramifications of the ongoing suffering caused by such despicable criminal acts guide the film through the lives of three distinct survivors.
Email correspondence in voice-over...
- 10/18/2019
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
There’s of-the-moment cinema and then there’s on-the-moment cinema, ripped so freshly from the headlines that the filmmaking still bears a few ink smudges. An engrossing, whole-hearted dramatization of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal behind the ongoing trial of Philippe Barbarin, the Archbishop of Lyon, François Ozon’s “By the Grace of God” doesn’t attempt to hide the in-progress nature of its narrative. It even concludes with a title card announcing that the verdict in Barbarin’s trial will be delivered on March 7, four weeks after the finished film’s Berlinale premiere; by the time many audiences get to see it, subsequent developments will have added different emotional hues to its onscreen ending.
That immediacy is both a virtue and a slight hindrance in a project that doesn’t play to Ozon’s usual strengths. Such a boon to his elegant genre pieces, his tricky, ahead-of-the-game authority...
That immediacy is both a virtue and a slight hindrance in a project that doesn’t play to Ozon’s usual strengths. Such a boon to his elegant genre pieces, his tricky, ahead-of-the-game authority...
- 2/8/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
However reductive it might be to frame “By the Grace of God” as a French riff on “Spotlight,” that’s exactly what writer-director François Ozon was hoping to make when he decided to make a film about the ongoing trial of Lyon-based Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who stands accused of covering up the fact that a charismatic priest in his dioceses has been sexually abusing children for more than 30 years. More to the point, that’s also exactly what Bernard Preynat’s victims asked Ozon to make for them.
Not a documentary exposé, as the filmmaker once intended, because that would do little more than reiterate the facts these brave men have already worked so hard to disseminate through the media. And certainly not a psychosexual thriller in the vein of Ozon’s previous work, as it’s easy to imagine how this story might not be well-suited for someone whose...
Not a documentary exposé, as the filmmaker once intended, because that would do little more than reiterate the facts these brave men have already worked so hard to disseminate through the media. And certainly not a psychosexual thriller in the vein of Ozon’s previous work, as it’s easy to imagine how this story might not be well-suited for someone whose...
- 2/8/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
With more than 300 films in its program and 500,000 attendees coming to watch them, the Berlinale is the world’s largest film festival. The 69th edition — the last under the guidance of festival director Dieter Kosslick, who’s overseen the launch of major recent movies like Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Things to Come,” Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs,” and Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation” — is set to kick off this Thursday with the world premiere of Lone Scherfig’s star-studded “The Kindness of Strangers,” and will continue until the following weekend, when Juliette Binoche’s jury awards the prestigious Golden Bear to the film that emerges victorious from the festival’s Competition section.
While the Berlinale has become one of the most eclectic events of its kind, and an unparalleled opportunity to discover fresh and exciting work from all corners of the globe, this year’s program also includes new work...
While the Berlinale has become one of the most eclectic events of its kind, and an unparalleled opportunity to discover fresh and exciting work from all corners of the globe, this year’s program also includes new work...
- 2/6/2019
- by David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland and Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Nine titles announced for Berlinale, which runs Feb 7-17.
The first films have been announced for the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival Competition and Berlinale Special sections.
The Competition line-up includes new films by Fatih Akin (The Golden Glove), François Ozon (By the Grace of God) and Denis Côté (Ghost Town Anthology).
The other three films in the strand are Marie Kreutzer’s The Ground Beneath My Feet, Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, but and Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters. All are world premieres except By the Grace Of God which is an international premiere.
The...
The first films have been announced for the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival Competition and Berlinale Special sections.
The Competition line-up includes new films by Fatih Akin (The Golden Glove), François Ozon (By the Grace of God) and Denis Côté (Ghost Town Anthology).
The other three films in the strand are Marie Kreutzer’s The Ground Beneath My Feet, Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, but and Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters. All are world premieres except By the Grace Of God which is an international premiere.
The...
- 12/13/2018
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival has revealed the first wave of titles for its competition lineup, including new films from François Ozon, Marie Kreutzer, Denis Côté and Fatih Akin. Charles Ferguson’s Watergate documentary is among the Berlinale Special titles.
The first nine Competition and Berlinale Special films were revealed today, alongside the previously announced opening film, The Kindness of Strangers by Lone Scherfig.
Festival favourites Akin (In The Fade) and Ozon (In The House) return with German-language thriller The Golden Glove and French-language drama By The Grace Of God, respectively. The former follows a serial killer who strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s. The latter looks at a real-life case of sexual abuses allegedly committed by a French priest in the late 1980s. Oscar-winner Ferguson (Inside Job) will present anticipated 260-minute feature doc Watergate, which is sure to draw plenty of contemporary parallels.
The first nine Competition and Berlinale Special films were revealed today, alongside the previously announced opening film, The Kindness of Strangers by Lone Scherfig.
Festival favourites Akin (In The Fade) and Ozon (In The House) return with German-language thriller The Golden Glove and French-language drama By The Grace Of God, respectively. The former follows a serial killer who strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s. The latter looks at a real-life case of sexual abuses allegedly committed by a French priest in the late 1980s. Oscar-winner Ferguson (Inside Job) will present anticipated 260-minute feature doc Watergate, which is sure to draw plenty of contemporary parallels.
- 12/13/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Louis Garrel as Dorante and Isabelle Huppert as Araminte, in False Confessions, director Luc Bondy’s French-language adaption of Marivaux’s play “Les Fausses Confidences.” Photo courtesy of Big World Pictures ©
Romantic comedy with a French accent and a love letter to theater both describe the French-language False Confessions (Les Fausses Confidences), the last film by Swiss film, theater and opera director Luc Bondy. Bondy re-sets Marivaux’s 18th century classical play about love, “Les Fausses Confidences,” in modern-day Paris, and stars Oscar-nominee Isabelle Huppert (Elle) and Louis Garrel as the would-be lovers at the center of all the twists and deceits.
Fans of director Bondy, writer Marivaux, the film’s star Isabelle Huppert or just theater in general, will find much to like in this enjoyable, clever film adaption. Passions, doubts, jealousies and tempers are all aroused in this dizzy, funny tale, in a production that blends film and theater in a creative fashion.
Romantic comedy with a French accent and a love letter to theater both describe the French-language False Confessions (Les Fausses Confidences), the last film by Swiss film, theater and opera director Luc Bondy. Bondy re-sets Marivaux’s 18th century classical play about love, “Les Fausses Confidences,” in modern-day Paris, and stars Oscar-nominee Isabelle Huppert (Elle) and Louis Garrel as the would-be lovers at the center of all the twists and deceits.
Fans of director Bondy, writer Marivaux, the film’s star Isabelle Huppert or just theater in general, will find much to like in this enjoyable, clever film adaption. Passions, doubts, jealousies and tempers are all aroused in this dizzy, funny tale, in a production that blends film and theater in a creative fashion.
- 7/14/2017
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
20. Love/Chloe in the Afternoon (1972)
Directed by: Éric Rohmer
Originally titled “Love in the Afternoon,” but released in North America as “Chloe in the Afternoon,” this Rohmer film is a tale of possible infidelity, seen through the eyes of a conflicted man. Frédéric (Bernard Verley) is a successful young lawyer who is happily married to a teacher named Hélène (Françoise Verley), who is pregnant with their second child. While Frédéric is in a considerably good place in his life, he still struggles with the loss of excitement he had before he married, when he could sleep with whomever he chose. It wasn’t so much the sex that thrilled him, but the chase itself. Still, he feels that these thoughts and fantasies, paired with his refusal to act upon them, only proves that he is completely dedicated and in love with his own wife. That is, until he meets Chloé...
Directed by: Éric Rohmer
Originally titled “Love in the Afternoon,” but released in North America as “Chloe in the Afternoon,” this Rohmer film is a tale of possible infidelity, seen through the eyes of a conflicted man. Frédéric (Bernard Verley) is a successful young lawyer who is happily married to a teacher named Hélène (Françoise Verley), who is pregnant with their second child. While Frédéric is in a considerably good place in his life, he still struggles with the loss of excitement he had before he married, when he could sleep with whomever he chose. It wasn’t so much the sex that thrilled him, but the chase itself. Still, he feels that these thoughts and fantasies, paired with his refusal to act upon them, only proves that he is completely dedicated and in love with his own wife. That is, until he meets Chloé...
- 12/2/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
In conjunction with La Furia Umana, Notebook is very happy to present Ted Fendt's original English translation of Luc Moullet's "Le masque et la part de Dieu," on the films of Eric Rohmer. Moullet's original French can be found at La Furia Umana.
Cecil summed up the difference between him and his brother, William DeMille, like this: “I show a thousand camels and you show one camel and you psychoanalyze it.” Eric Rohmer is a lot more like William than Cecil, minus Freud.
What is fascinating, foremost, in his work is his obstinacy to not go beyond his only or main subject, often summed up, in a somewhat misleading way, by its title: Béatrice Romand wants a good marriage, or, at least, to help her friend have one (A Tale of Autumn), Brialy wants to caress Claire’s Knee (meaning, to be sure that she is practically consenting), Lucchini,...
Cecil summed up the difference between him and his brother, William DeMille, like this: “I show a thousand camels and you show one camel and you psychoanalyze it.” Eric Rohmer is a lot more like William than Cecil, minus Freud.
What is fascinating, foremost, in his work is his obstinacy to not go beyond his only or main subject, often summed up, in a somewhat misleading way, by its title: Béatrice Romand wants a good marriage, or, at least, to help her friend have one (A Tale of Autumn), Brialy wants to caress Claire’s Knee (meaning, to be sure that she is practically consenting), Lucchini,...
- 1/3/2012
- MUBI
The final film in Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales series is a thoughtful meditation on the meaning of commitment and excess in a highly regulated culture. Never did French New Wave master Eric Rohmer manage to narrativize his ethical concerns - actions partaken due to desire versus what is the societally condoned 'right thing' to do versus what is important to the well-being of his characters - so well as he did in his 1972 classic, Chloe in the Afternoon. The plot is beautiful in its simplicity: Frederic (Bernard Verley) is a Parisian businessman. He is (seemingly) happily married with child, and his wife Helene (played by his real-life wife Francoise Verley) is expecting another. He has his life in order - he allows himself fantasies about other women, but fantasies are all they are. Eric Rohmer Then, of course, a woman from his past steps into his life -...
- 8/23/2010
- TribecaFilm.com
Updated through 1/18.
"Eric Rohmer, a pioneer of the French New Wave which transformed cinema in the 1960s," reports Reuters. "He was 89." As in the barrage of other first reports hitting the wires, the milestones are just touched on now, an outline to be fleshed out over the coming days. And weeks. And years. Born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in Nancy on April 4, 1920; first international acclaim with Ma nuit chez Maud (My Night at Maud's), nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1969; founding La Gazette du Cinema with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Jacques Rivette in 1950; editorship of Cahiers du Cinéma; the last film, Les amours d'Astree et de Celadon (The Romance of Astree and Celadon) in 2007.
"A former novelist and teacher of French and German literature, Mr Rohmer emphasized the spoken and written word in his films at a time when tastes - thanks in no small part to his...
"Eric Rohmer, a pioneer of the French New Wave which transformed cinema in the 1960s," reports Reuters. "He was 89." As in the barrage of other first reports hitting the wires, the milestones are just touched on now, an outline to be fleshed out over the coming days. And weeks. And years. Born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in Nancy on April 4, 1920; first international acclaim with Ma nuit chez Maud (My Night at Maud's), nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1969; founding La Gazette du Cinema with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Jacques Rivette in 1950; editorship of Cahiers du Cinéma; the last film, Les amours d'Astree et de Celadon (The Romance of Astree and Celadon) in 2007.
"A former novelist and teacher of French and German literature, Mr Rohmer emphasized the spoken and written word in his films at a time when tastes - thanks in no small part to his...
- 1/18/2010
- MUBI
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