Michel Ocelot's 'Dilili a Parigi' Celebrates Belle Époque Art and Culture

Michel Ocelot's animated film 'Dilili a Parigi,' winner of the 2019 César Award for Best Animated Film, follows the young heroine Dilili as she battles a male supremacist sect kidnapping girls in Belle Époque Paris. The film features a parade of historical figures including artists like Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Monet, Rodin, Camille Claudel, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Suzanne Valadon, as well as writers Colette and Marcel Proust, scientists Marie Curie and Louis Pasteur, and composer Claude Debussy. Ocelot digitally photographed Paris and removed all modern traces, then animated over the images. Dilili herself is from New Caledonia, a former French penal colony, with a Kanak mother and French father. The film incorporates landmarks like the Bateau-Lavoir and the Moulin Rouge, and includes references to artworks such as Monet's 'Nymphéas' and Renoir's 'Dance in the Country.' It also features the music of Erik Satie and the fashion of Paul Poiret. The film promotes anti-racism, anti-sexism, and equality, ending with the song 'Le Soleil et la pluie' by Ocelot and Gabriel Yared.