Something in the Air

Following his critical triumphs, SUMMER HOURS and CARLOS, Assayas’ semi-autobiographical new feature SOMETHING IN THE AIR is a vibrant, incisively crafted story of a young man’s artistic awakening in the politically turbulent French student movement of the early ‘70s. In a nod to his earlier film COLD WATER, Assayas’ surrogate Gilles (newcomer Clément Métayer) is a graduating high school student in Paris deeply involved in the counterculture of the time. While Gilles begins to realize that his interests lie more in the revolutions in music and art, he finds himself pulled into ever more dangerous political protests by the people around him, especially his radicalized girlfriend (Lola Créton of GOODBYE FIRST LOVE). Illuminating and elegiac, Assayas’ story celebrates that thrilling, evanescent moment in history when young people could feel revolution just within their grasp.