Olivier Assayas

Returning to feature filmmaking after his brilliant 2010 mini-series "Carlos," in Olivier Assayas' "Something in the Air" it is 1971 and Gilles is a graduating high school student in Paris deeply involved in the counterculture of the time.

Trailer for Something in the Air. In the months after the heady weeks of May 68, a group of young people search for a way to continue the revolution believed to be just beginning. For Gilles (newcomer Cl ment Mettayer), this means having to balance his political commitments with his desire to explore painting and filmmaking; for his girlfriend Christine (Goodbye, First Love star Lola Cr ton), this means throwing herself wholeheartedly into the task of organizing. Olivier Assayas (Carlos,Summer Hours) here describes the sentimental education of a generation that was too young to have been on the barricades; he brilliantly captures its explorations of new lifestyles, the arguments about strategies and tactics, and above all its music, a constant presence that becomes something like the artistic unconscious of an era. The period details are perfect, but what makes this film so special is the sense it conveys of history as lived experience.

Returning to feature filmmaking after his brilliant 2010 mini-series Carlos, in Olivier Assayas' Something in the Air it is 1971 and Gilles (newcomer Cl ment Metayer) is a graduating high school student in Paris deeply involved in the counterculture of the time. As Gilles begins to realize that his interests lie more in the revolutions in art and music, he finds himself pulled into ever more dangerous political protests by the people around him, especially his radicalized girlfriend, Christine (Lola Cr ton). After a vandalism attack against their school goes terribly wrong, Gilles and his friends flee to Italy, where they spend a bohemian summer in the countryside drifting between parties, rallies and agitprop film screenings. Amidst this whirlwind of politics, art and sex, the group discovers that at their age every day holds new possibilities, and life awaits the curious.