This exhibition drew inspiration from the animated adventure film Dilili in Paris (directed by Michel Ocelot, France-Germany-Belgium, 2018), set in early 20th-century Paris during what is nostalgically remembered as a golden age. This exhibition drew inspiration from the animated adventure film Dilili in Paris (directed by Michel Ocelot, France-Germany-Belgium, 2018), set in early 20th-century Paris during what is nostalgically remembered as a golden age. In the story, which follows a girl from New Caledonia in pursuit of a gang of serial kidnappers of young girls, more than a hundred leading French artists and scientists of the day make appearances. Dilili in Paris vividly portrays the cultural diversity of the era, while also unflinchingly revealing shadows that lurked beneath its magnificence. With curatorial supervision by the France-based art historian Phillip Dennis Cate, this exhibition inspired by the film features approximately 280 works, centered on masterpieces from the Weisman & Michel Collection and also including outstanding works from Japanese collections. Covering the years from the late 19th century fin-de-siecle (“end of the century”) and Belle Epoque (“beautiful era”) until the Art Deco age (roughly the 1920s and early 1930s), the exhibition not only showcases visual art and crafts, but is also a multifaceted exploration of the cultural flourishing of the time in fields including theater, music, literature, fashion, science and technology. The exhibition also benefited greatly from the multidisciplinary insights of various experts, including curator Phillip Dennis Cate, Norma Thibault, manager of the Weisman & Michel Collection; Keiko Kawashima, Professor Emeritus at Nagoya Institute of Technology and specialist in the history of science; Tatsuhiko Nishioka, Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University of the Arts, who made indispensable contributions to the audio and video production of the exhibition; Shinsuke Omori, Professor in the Tokyo University of the Arts Faculty of Music, who provided expert guidance on the French poetry and music of the era; and curators at museums from whose collections works were drawn. Modern society was in many ways built on the scientific and cultural achievements of the Belle Epoque, and today, in a new era of both great prosperity and daunting challenges, it is an ideal time to revisit the light and dark sides of modernism and envision a new future for our world. We would like to express our most heartfelt gratitude to David E. Weisman and Jacqueline E. Michel and to the Japanese museums and private collectors who graciously lent precious works from their collections.