Ozon knows his camera placements, musical cues, and, of course, actors, and here he barely steps wrong, pulling us into the narrative, even while dialing back on his usual extravagance.
By the Grace of God(Grâce à Dieu)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, Belgium · 2018
2h 17m
Director François Ozon
Starring Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, Swann Arlaud, Éric Caravaca
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
When Alexandre discovers that the Catholic priest who abused him as a child is working with children again, he decides to take action. With the help of two other victims, François and Emmanuel, Alexandre decides to expose the sexual abuse hidden by the Catholic Church.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Ozon manages to instill a measured touch into every argument, outburst, and testimony, matching the naturalistic cinematography (by Manuel Dacosse, “Let the Corpses Tan”) and bestowing on us the most important and assured movie on this treacherous topic made this decade.
A thoughtful, fast-paced, and immaculately acted procedural that unfolds with the urgency of a newspaper deadline, By the Grace of God zips through the facts of this horrid case, while also shaping them into a lens through which to examine the uneasy relationships between mercy and justice — between faith and the flawed institution that exists to preserve it.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
This is a social justice film made with purposeful conviction and a quiet, never strident, sense of indignation.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
By the Grace of God is a rarity: An important film that’s also utterly inspired.
That the film works as stirringly as it does is largely because of that brash, heart-on-sleeve engagement with its characters’ messy, unfinished feelings, not to mention Ozon’s canny knack for playing on French star personae.
Screen Daily by Jonathan Romney
Superbly acted and highly controlled, the film doesn’t afford easy entertainment, its slow pace and weighty sense of narrative responsibility making for heavy viewing during stretches of its extended running time.
Ozon’s film evolves less as a procedural story than a character study.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Mostly, though, this very empathetic project suffers from an inability to offer anything beyond what one would expect from its synopsis.
RogerEbert.com by Odie Henderson
While this is a true story, Ozon goes the fictional movie route, taking a bit of dramatic license while keeping most of the actual details intact. The director impressively juggles the large scope of his script while maintaining the sense of intimacy for his male actors that he normally reserves for his female characters.
Users who liked this film also liked
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 2017
- Director Abdellatif Kechiche
- Cast Shaïn Boumedine, Ophélie Bau, Salim Kechiouche, Lou Luttiau, Alexia Chardard, Hafsia Herzi
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Divines
Dounia is a drug dealer who lusts for power, until an encounter with Djigui, a young dancer, changes her course.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Qatar • 2016
- Director Houda Benyamina
- Cast Oulaya Amamra, Déborah Lukumuena, Kévin Mischel, Jisca Kalvanda, Yasin Houicha, Majdouline Idrissi
- Genre Drama
- Available on Netflix basic with Ads, Netflix
Custody
(Jusqu'à la garde)
A powerful story about unhealthy family relationships.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2018
- Director Xavier Legrand
- Cast Denis Ménochet, Léa Drucker, Thomas Gioria, Mathilde Auneveux, Mathieu Saikaly, Florence Janas
- Genre Drama
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV
The Wolf's Call
(Le Chant du loup)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2019
- Director Antonin Baudry
- Cast François Civil, Omar Sy, Mathieu Kassovitz, Reda Kateb, Paula Beer, Alexis Michalik
- Genre Thriller, Action
- Available on Microsoft Store, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, YouTube, Apple TV
Conviction
(Une Intime conviction)
A former juror sets out to prove the innocence of the accused when his exoneration is appealed.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Antoine Raimbault
- Cast Marina Foïs, Olivier Gourmet, Laurent Lucas, Philippe Uchan, Jean Benguigui, François Fehner
- Genre Drama
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, OVID, VUDU Free, Kanopy, YouTube, The Roku Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video
In Safe Hands
(Pupille)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2018
- Director Jeanne Herry
- Cast Sandrine Kiberlain, Gilles Lellouche, Élodie Bouchez, Olivia Côte, Clotilde Mollet, Jean-François Stévenin
- Genre Drama
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, VUDU Free, Kanopy, Tubi TV, YouTube, The Roku Channel, Apple TV
Invisibles
(Les Invisibles)
Homeless women in a city in northern France find refuge and support in a women’s shelter, and in the social workers who run it -- until the shelter is threatened with closure.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2019
- Director Louis-Julien Petit
- Cast Audrey Lamy, Corinne Masiero, Noémie Lvovsky, Déborah Lukumuena, Pablo Pauly, Sarah Suco
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on DIRECTV, Max
Father & Sons
(Deux fils)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Félix Moati
- Cast Vincent Lacoste, Benoît Poelvoorde, Mathieu Capella, Anaïs Demoustier, Noémie Lvovsky, India Hair
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Little White Lies 2
(Nous finirons ensemble)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Guillaume Canet
- Cast François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Gilles Lellouche, Laurent Lafitte, Benoît Magimel, Pascale Arbillot
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Who You Think I Am
(Celle que vous croyez)
A 50-year-old professor adopts a younger fake persona to meet a man online.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Safy Nebbou
- Cast Juliette Binoche, Nicole Garcia, François Civil, Marie-Ange Casta, Guillaume Gouix, Charles Berling
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Kino Now, YouTube, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video
Cyrano, My Love
(Edmond)
The film imagines the creation of the play Cyrano de Bergerac after Edmond Rostand promises to write it in three weeks.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2018
- Director Alexis Michalik
- Cast Thomas Solivérès, Olivier Gourmet, Mathilde Seigner, Tom Leeb, Lucie Boujenah, Alice de Lencquesaing
- Genre Comedy, History
- Available on DIRECTV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, AMC on Demand, Vudu, MGM Plus Amazon Channel, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , fuboTV
New Biz in the Hood
(Jusqu'ici tout va bien)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Mohamed Hamidi
- Cast Gilles Lellouche, Malik Bentalha, Sabrina Ouazani, Camille Lou, Anne-Elisabeth Blateau, Loïc Legendre
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Sweetheart
(Mon bébé)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Lisa Azuelos
- Cast Sandrine Kiberlain, Thaïs Alessandrin, Victor Belmondo, Mickaël Lumière, Camille Claris, Kyan Khojandi
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Mystery of Henri Pick
(Le Mystère Henri Pick)
A skeptic sets out to uncover the truth about a novel taking over France by an unknown, possibly dead author.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2019
- Director Rémi Bezançon
- Cast Fabrice Luchini, Camille Cottin, Alice Isaaz, Bastien Bouillon, Philypa Phoenix
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV
Rebels
(Rebelles)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2019
- Director Allan Mauduit
- Cast Cécile de France, Audrey Lamy, Yolande Moreau, Simon Abkarian, Samuel Jouy, Béatrice Agenin
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Love at Second Sight
(Mon Inconnue)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium, Korea • 2019
- Director Hugo Gélin
- Cast François Civil, Joséphine Japy, Benjamin Lavernhe, Camille Lellouche, Amaury de Crayencour, Edith Scob
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Les Misérables
A policeman discovers how deep tensions run among gangs in the Parisian suburbs.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2019
- Director Ladj Ly
- Cast Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djibril Zonga, Steve Tientcheu, Jeanne Balibar
- Genre Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Available on Freevee, Amazon Prime Video
On a Magical Night
(Chambre 212)
A woman spends the night in a hotel contemplating her marriage and confronting ghosts of her past lovers.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium, Luxembourg • 2019
- Director Christophe Honoré
- Cast Chiara Mastroianni, Vincent Lacoste, Camille Cottin, Benjamin Biolay, Carole Bouquet, Marie-Christine Adam
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Alamo on Demand, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV
La Belle Époque
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2019
- Director Nicolas Bedos
- Cast Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Doria Tillier, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Denis Podalydès
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Full Time
(À plein temps)
A woman's prospects of landing a life-changing job opportunity are threatened by a national transit strike.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2022
- Director Eric Gravel
- Cast Laure Calamy, Anne Suarez, Geneviève Mnich, Nolan Arizmendi, Sasha Lemaître Cremaschi, Cyril Gueï
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube