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'Something in the Air' shows that revolutionaries like comforts as much as the ruling class

( Unrated ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Something' shows director Olivier Assayas's sympathy with the movie's would-be revolutionary.

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Courtesy of MK2 Productions
'Something in the Air' is directed by Olivier Assayas.
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

Olivier Assayas’s “Something in the Air” is set in 1971, three years after the barricade-busting student-led political riots in suburban Paris. Gilles (Clément Métayer) is 17 – the same age Assayas was at that time – and the film benefits from the director’s deep-held simpatico with this would-be revolutionary. Gilles’s eventual retreat, with his firebrand girlfriend (Lola Créton), to a life of summer bohemianism in an Italian villa is both ironic and welcome.

Assayas doesn’t bring out the fiery best in this material, but he’s smart enough to know that revolutionaries like their comforts as much as the ruling class does. Grade: B (Unrated.)

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