The original French title of “Something in the Air” translates to “After May,” a reference to the galvanizing counterculture movement that climaxed in the streets of Paris in May 1968. The movie’s not a climax of anything; it’s the aftermath.
A hangover, you might say. It’s 1971, and for teenagers with a conscience, there’s a sense of having missed the moment. In the opening reels, we meet a group of high-schoolers who graffiti their school and print leaflets and talk about whether revolutionary ideas require revolutionary style.
They’re serious, although they haven’t quite got the understanding that the things they do might have lasting consequences. After an accident causes real trouble, the friends separate, lay low for a while and re-assess where they are with their various commitments.
“Something in the Air” is a film by Olivier Assayas, the maker of “Summer Hours” and “Carlos,” so the nature of those commitments will have to include love and art as well as politics.
Mostly we follow Gilles (played by newcomer Clement Metayer), whose talent as a painter and yearning as a lover get tangled up in his on-again, off-again fervor to be a radical.
Like some of the other members of his group, Gilles has a wealthy father. Dad is working as a writer on a TV series about the famous literary detective Inspector Maigret, and he calls on Gilles to assist him with his duties.
Because Assayas was born in 1955, got involved in youthful radicalism and had a father who wrote for a French TV series about Inspector Maigret, it’s easy to see “Something in the Air” as a memoir.
In fact, you could sense this even if you didn’t know Assayas’s biography, because the movie’s got an almost painful grasp of details: small hurts, off hours, enthusiasms and disappointments.
Like much of the filmmaker’s work, this one meanders freely through weeks and months, but it always feels like a logical flow. Logical, and sometimes magical — or so it seems when our protagonist lands a job assisting on a ridiculous studio movie production involving a cavewoman and a dinosaur, but still finds time to visit the newest experimental movie screenings at night.
By the way, there’s the obligatory scene (it should be obligatory for movies set in the early 1970s) where the hero thumbs through his collection of record albums.
And be assured that the soundtrack for this movie, an awesome saunter through vintage songs both familiar and obscure, should have Quentin Tarantino and Cameron Crowe heading back to the record store for their next movies.
“Something in the Air” (three and a half stars)
A teenage would-be radical finds his way through the early 1970s, torn between the revolution and his interest in art and love affairs. The new film by Olivier Assayas catches a sometimes magical mood, and it’s got a great soundtrack of vintage tunes. In French, with English subtitles.
Rated: Not rated; probably R for nudity.
Showing: Northwest Film Forum.
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