Review: "Cyrano, My Love" & "By the Grace of God"
Friday, October 18, 2019 at 11:31AM by Cláudio Alves
Pity those who live in the shadow of Oscar's champions. Such is the case of two French films from last year which now arrive in American theatres. If they were Hollywood productions, we'd surely be talking about Cyrano, My Love and By the Grace of God as potential contenders. As it stands, they can expect some golden recognition in the shape of the César rather than a little golden man. They must also expect eternal comparisons to more famous movies...
Alexis Michalik's Cyrano, My Love takes its cues from Shakespeare in Love, doing to Edmond Rostand what the Miramax comedy did to the Bard. This time around, instead of Elizabethan London and Romeo and Juliet, we have turn of the century Paris and Cyrano de Bergerac. Still, the basic ingredients remain the same in this French variation of the anglophone recipe. Once again, the inspiration for a remarkable play comes from the artist's personal life and there's no greater fountain of greatness than the affections of a beautiful woman.
There are inexperienced actors, love blossoming backstage and there's even some last-minute recasting. Still, where the Shakespearean romance was light and emotionally powerful, this French confection feels stodgy and unbalanced. While it's fun to revisit the delights of Cyrano's verses and see how 19th-century actors staged Baroque splendor, the result leaves much to be desired. The sort of character assassination done to the main female roles during the last act's resolutions is particularly awful. There are few things worse than a fun dessert leaving a sour taste in the mouth.
Spotlight is the Best Picture echoed by François Ozon in By the Grace of God. In this case, however, the similarities aren't as significant or cumbersome. Mostly, it's a matter of theme and subject matter, both films dealing with true stories of sexual abuse and pedophilia in the Catholic Church. One significant element that differentiates the projects is that Ozon doesn't dramatize the experiences of journalists, but that of the victims. Because of this, By the Grace of God is both angrier and more emotionally unresolved than Tom McCarthy's movie.
Instead of his usual cocktail of sexual psychosis and lurid melodrama, the director has approached the story with uncharacteristic restraint. I never thought I'd say this about an Ozon film, but By the Grace of God is positively austere. Such dramatic concision rubs against the fractured psyches at the story's center, highlighting the effects of trauma by refusing to play them up with stylizations.
At almost two and a half hours, the film is an epic of institutional oppression and activist contentions, its rigidness becoming both more powerful and frustrating as it goes along. In many ways, the actors carry the weight of it all and do so admirably. In the lead roles, Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, and Swann Arnaud convey three distinct visions of adults defined by their childhood horrors, some turning their backs on religion while others try to make sense of their faith amid the Catholic Church's cover-up of unforgivable crimes. The supporting cast is equally astounding, never simplifying the complexities at play in this real-life nightmare that will never end for the people involved.
Reader Comments (9)
I agree, By the Grace of God isn't your traditional Ozon film but that doesn't make it less interesting. The cast is indeed impressive (the three lead actors are fantastic and I'm glad you chose a picture of legendary French character actress Josiane Balasko to illustrate your article as she gives her best performance in years) and they helped Ozon achieve the rare feat of making a film that is both extremely informative and powerful. Bravo!
FrenchToast -- She is brilliant in the film!
Regarding Ozon, I liked what he did with the story, but couldn't stop myself from wondering what a director more accustomed to these tonalities might have done with the same material. I'd love to see Robin Campillo's By the Grace of God, for instance.
Thanks for this post. I never heard of these films and they both sound intriguing.
Cláudio -- I love your idea!
Grâce à Dieu a.k.a. "By the Grace of God" is totally riveting -- François Ozon's latest film. The three leads are all good, each embodying certain traits yet never shrink into caricatures -- Swann Arlaud in particular. His messy, tangled-up life contrasts with the other two. If the performances can be reduced to music, Arlaud's Emmanuel is like late-night blues to the power balladry of Denis Ménochet's François and the clean West Coast jazz of Melvil Poupaud's Alexandre. Each vignette's narratives carefully and emphatetically told but with surprising restraint. The stories are paced well, the child abuses recreated tactfully, the supporting performances more lived-in than acted out. There were brief scenes that I thought were breathtaking and spectacular for what they evoked in me: Alexandre's expression when his son asked him a weighty question at the film's conclusion, and the heartbreaking mise en scène of Emmanuel and his mother (Josiane Balasko) captured wordlessly in two separate rooms and both in one frame.
Grâce à Dieu reminded me of Hirokazu Koreeda's The Third Murder -- both are not typical of two directors' film oeuvre but both managed to show nuanced little observations.
Owl -- That's a beautiful description of the film. Those moments you single out were breathtaking indeed, both because of how they were shot but also the actors' masterful work. It's a pity the César doesn't have an Ensemble category because this film certainly deserves a nod.
The scene between Emmanuel and his mother was my favorite, by the way. It perfectly fuses Ozon's Hitchcockian stylistics with his newfound restraint.
Any film by Ozon is worth watching
I wrote in my own review that Ozon's insouciant approach helps this material. I can't imagine an American director writing scenes in which the victims discuss the abuse so explicitly while demanding more wine, please?
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Thanks for this post. I never heard of these films and they both sound interesting.