SOMETHING IN THE AIR (APRÈS MAI) World Cinema

Set in Paris in 1971, just a few years after the student riots of 1968, SOMETHING IN THE AIR feels like an open letter to the friends and forces that shaped director Olivier Assayas’ coming of age. Assayas masterfully makes the encompassing political issues personal by focusing on the journey of Gilles (Clément Métayer ), a young man whose transformation begins when he is exposed to revolutionary literature. Although his intellectual awakening leads him to join the political protests and vandalism in the streets, when an opportunity to escape to Italy for the summer appears, Gilles seizes it. In Italy, he experiences artistic inspiration fuelled by a new muse and the unbridled freedom of expression he discovers in a leftist filmmaking collective where a member proudly proclaims, “We don’t make fiction.” Film becomes a new medium for Gilles, through which he is able to reconcile the tension between his aspirations and his political ideals.