Near the middle of director Olivier Assayas’ new film, “Something in the Air,” we are treated to a film screening in Italy. The year is 1971, three years after the turbulent unrest of the French May 1968 protests. The movement, which was begun by university students, has broadened. In this scene, we see political radicals, labor leaders, filmmakers and the high schoolers that form the core of Assayas’ story. But, as this haphazard group of revolutionaries chat about the film they have just viewed — a formal, staid documentary about the Laotian Patriotic Front — there is a distinct sense that the fervent inertia of the movement has faded. As one man asks from the crowd, “Shouldn’t revolutionary cinema employ revolutionary syntax?” Assayas’ film remains ambiguous in its answer.
“Something in the Air” is not necessarily a film about revolutions. This seems somewhat misleading because the movie begins with a rather raw and violent clash between French high schoolers and police. Gilles (Clement Metayer), a budding artist, and his peers are heavily involved in the underground student movement. They read Marx, print provocative posters, vandalize the school’s walls, throw Molotov cocktails and spout idealisms in the pursuit of some type of liberation. But the ideals that propelled this bunch in the beginning begin to dissipate amid the snares of young love and creative expression.
After an instance of vandalism lands the group in hot water, the scenes shift. The industrial grays and suburban beiges of France are supplanted by the poetic greens and languorous blue skies of rural Italy. Gilles soon becomes enamored with the beautiful firebrand Christine (Lola Creton) as the discussions of rebellion dissolve into silent sequences of painting au naturale, nude sailing and drunken, bohemian carousing. The group’s intent is no longer clear and as such, neither is the film’s.
Unlike “Grin Without a Cat” — Chris Marker’s famous 1977 film of the French New Left — or Bernardo Bertolucci’s seductive vision of the ’68 protests in “The Dreamers,” “Something in the Air” is, as the title indicates, neither here nor there. Like the majority of its second half, there is bountiful lingering with minimal momentum. For all the shots of heated, political rhetoric, there is no payoff. There only seems to be the superficial allure of beautiful, young Europeans and the grandeur of aesthetic merriment.
Perhaps this is to Assayas’ benefit. His previous works, particularly his film “Summer Hours” and his mini-series “Carlos,” have all displayed a keen sense of control, precision and nuanced intellect. “Something in the Air” is no different. The historical detail is spot-on, the sense of malaise both appropriate and contemplative. And yet this lack of radical urgency not only derails the political investment of the characters but also the emotional investment of the audience.
Even as the students hash out their socialist philosophies at the film’s outset, it is never clear what the stakes are. Yes, there is present violence. Yes, there is a vaguely oppressive system in place. But, for the most part, Assayas forces the audience to question their empathy for these youths: Are they naive? Self-indulgent? Justified? Again, there is no clear solution. The characters seem aloof and so does Assayas.
After the screening scene, the camera cuts to a party. Gilles still doesn’t understand why “revolutionary syntax is the style of the bourgeoisie.” One of the producers responds bluntly, “Forget style.” But, as the audience, we can’t. Because for all the talk spouted in “Something in the Air” about individuals, there is no connection to Gilles. He is cold, emotionless and, like his fading ideals, without a striking center. He is, like the film, all style.
Contact Jessica Pena at [email protected].