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Something in the Air (Apres Mai)

Directed by Olivier Assayas

Written by Olivier Assayas

France, 2012

No matter what era during which we grow up, it is through a nostalgic haze that we view our youth. There’s something of a dreamlike quality to any look back on those days when we were young, when we could make a headlong dive into the unknown without being worried of the consequences. Such a quality is ever-present in Olivier Assaysas’ new film Something in the Air (titled Apres Mai in France), set in the early 1970s and centered around some college-age rebels who try to make a difference in the world, to assert their personal significance on a larger scale.

Set in early 1971, with tensions still very high after the civil unrest of May 1968, Something in the Air focuses on a few young activists who want to keep their revolutionary tactics fresh in...

Title: Something In The Air (Après Mai) Sundance Selects Director: Olivier Assayas Screenwriter: Olivier Assayas Cast: Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Carole Combes, India Menuez, Felix Armand Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/26/12 Opens: October 4, 2012 at the NY Film Festival, wide in spring 2013 Demonstrations against governments may be taking place these days in some of the “less developed” nations like Libya and Egypt, but in the late sixties, early seventies, the most progressive countries bore the brunt of high physical action most by the young. Here in the U.S. the youths had a point: end the Vietnam War, because if the conflict continued, there was an ever increasing [ Read More ]

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Sex, drugs, art, and revolution — such was the life of a young European in 1971. Or at least it was the life of a young director at 17 trying to reconcile the state of his country and his ambitions for the future. Taking us along for the rapid ascent into adulthood of a group of school-aged French radicals, Olivier Assayas‘ semi-autobiographical film Something in the Air (Après mai) is a slice of life at a time of wholesale liberation. These Trotskyites look to dissolve the government’s ‘Special Brigades’ and win student rights through pamphlets and graffiti, their actions’ consequences escalating while their political bent begins to wane. There’s nothing like growing up to put an end to youthful idealism.

Gilles (Clement Metayer) is the epitome of boutique rebel, carving an ‘A’ for anarchy on his desk and listening to Syd Barrett while painting. A prospective artist, his dreams are easily...