Something in the Air

France, the early 1970s. Many young people are still experiencing the revolutionary fever of the events of May 1968. One of them is a student named Gilles, who is involved in a variety of activities for the radical left. Although politics is taking up more and more of his time, he doesn’t want to give up his dream of becoming an artist. He knows perfectly well that he is at a watershed moment in his life and that the decisions he makes now will impact his entire future. An award winner for best screenplay at the Venice Festival, Something in the Air is no naive coming-of-age tale. Instead of idealizing the past, Assayas prefers to portray it without embellishment, as evinced by the film’s harsh, sometimes even pseudo-documentary form. The emotional authenticity of Something in the Air also rests on yet another foundation: the director has mentioned in in numerous interviews that he has a lot in common with Gilles and that the story told on-screen has a strong autobiographical dimension.