Dilili in Paris

Michel Ocelot is one of my favourite directors, so this vote doesn't come lightly. The premise is a young girl investigating a criminal ring that kidnaps women and girls. Take a moment to imagine what happens in real life to kidnapped women and girls. Think about it. This movie does not do what you're thinking. What is does is much, much worse! I'm not exaggerating. I watched it over a year ago. I keep telling myself "maybe if I want it again, in English, I can appreciate the rest of the movie more." But I can't. I won't. The dehumanization and trauma the victims go through outways any minor positives.

And yes the positives are minor. The visuals didn't capture me the way his other films do. The main character, while strong and outspoken, has a third of her dialogue just a repetition of "pleased to meet you" or something like that. It happens a lot since the movie is also all about meeting a bunch of famous people who lived in Paris at the time. Perhaps if the rest of the movie was good I'd have finally given it another chance. Alas, I can't.

Even the epilogue in the credits, seemingly meant to give a happy ending image, was also disturbingly horrific. I just can't imagine showing this movie to a child, or anyone for that matter. I only wrote this now, because I recently started watching The Handmaids Tale, and can't decide which situation is worse. If the villains had the same level of power and control as THT, Dilili would be the worst by a landslide. That's how disturbing it is!