"Something in the Air" (2013)

 

Something in the Air is director Olivier Assayas semi-autobiographical, bittersweet love letter to the peak of the 1960's revolutionary activity in France. High school student Gilles (Clement Metayer) and his friends live in the uncertainty of post-1968, where it has become less and less certain as to what makes a person still true to the rebellious spirit of yesteryear. As point of proof, Gilles often seems like he's taking on the affectation of a revolutionary. He comes off as someone who likes the outward appearances of the movement, even as he's not sure he likes the more radical tendencies of the counter-cultural movement and reactionaries.

The movie is first the giddy high of sticking it to the man, and experimenting with drugs and sex. But this is followed by a sobering come down from the rush of discovery and youthful abandonment. The characters start as wayward high schoolers spraying graffiti on their school's front wall, and they all end up in different places but broken and with it only just dawning on them the indvidual loss they've made in the name of various causes. As Gilles, and everyone more generally, becomes disillusioned with the world, and, more importantly, the people around them, they are left uncertain as to where they stand and what to do with their lives. It was easy to hand out some pamphlets to some classmates and more difficult to try to grasp how hard it is to actually create meaningful large scale change.

Assayas' film is at its best when it subtly suggests how the personal and political intersect, grounding it in the specific cultural milieu of the era. In the film, people, especially Gilles, do things for highly selfish reasons that frequently have little to do with any political motivation. Assayas' directions suggests a strong affection for this time and place, but he rarely filters it through nostalgia, drawing into question some of the stickier and more questionable and contradictory aspects of the counterculture, sexual liberation and political radicalism.

Ultimately Assayas' nostalgia comes through his protagonist, who seems to stand in for the director himself. There's an earnestness to Gilles' journey, part coming of age story, and part episodic reminiscence of the time. Assayas may not go far enough in his depiction of the era, simplifying many aspects, but the journey is sweet and yet still grounded in a weary awareness.

Grade: ★★★