In this distressingly familiar story of pedophile priests and the Catholic superiors who moved them from parish to parish as cover (offering victims, at best, sympathy without justice), French writer/director François Ozon tamps down on cinematic stylistics to lay out this priestly game of ‘musical chairs’ as simply as possible. Structured via personal remembrances decades after the fact by four very different men (the same overriding goal but with very different agendas), the trigger comes when the most stable of victims, also the most traditional practicing Catholic in the group, sees the priest who molested him still working with children. When his report, if not his identity, goes public, it leads to others coming forward and openly petitioning the Church to take responsibility; and for the police to act. An ensemble piece that’s delivered one personal revelation at a time, the most troubling comes last, superbly realized by Swann Arlaud as the most abused and least likely to move on. While this all sounds impossibly grim, Ozon finds the perfect tone of qualified, hard-won success in shared experience over depression. And a parting of the ways in place of any victory lap.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For a Stateside view emphasizing the power of the press, SPOTLIGHT/’15. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/02/spotlight-2015.html
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