Something in the Air

The latest film from Olivier Assayas (following the artistic and critical triumphs of Summer Hours and Carlos) is a vibrant, semiautobiographical account of the politically turbulent French student movement of the early 1970s.

In the months after the heady weeks of May 1968, a group of young people search for a way to continue the revolution believed to be just beginning. For Gilles (newcomer Clément 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 Créton), this means throwing herself wholeheartedly into the task of organizing. Assayas 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. (122 mins., DCP)