Qualcosa nell'aria

Something in the Air (French: Après mai) (2012)

Coming-of-age tale, Based on Assayas's life, Dream-like graceful camera, Gorgeous shots of Italy, The youthful zeal is catching.

French high school students Art, film, drugs, love, politics, Unfocused story, More a nostalgic film than One that can be loved by all.

Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems, the second stanza a response to the first. Each stanza follows a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern. Traditionally, each is a love letter. This form usually demands two authors, but it is possible to have a poet take on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to a film?

#Somonka #PoemReview

A miniature portrait of the student movement, that focuses around a group of few passionate youngsters.

They do not just want better rights and more acknowledgment; they are prepared to fight in order to get it. It feels the world is at a turning point and so are their lives. If they do not fight for a better world, then what is it all for?

The struggle begins full of zeal, passion and fervour. The time, being unforgiving to all, changes everything. The views of society change, ideals and lives. Through fighting, facing consequences and experimenting with free love and drugs our heroes find themselves facing new realities and challenges. The goal seem to have been achieved, what now? The existential question in everyone's minds.

Though low key, it has enough youthful energy that exhumes passion, inspiration that can stir the audience's thought process expecting from all of us to not lose sight of our ideals, the very thing that makes us human.

Gilles is an interesting character, a political activist studying to be an artist. But it's frustrating that beyond his political beliefs we get to know little about him. Conversations are short. What do any of the people feel? There are a lot of opinions and judgments made about society, authority, each other - usual for French films. But left me unsatisfied. Warning: Ironically, be prepared to meet many dissatisfied people, even majorly unhappy ones, during the course of this film. Wonderful evocation of times ('70s) and attention to detail though.

There's revolution on the mind in Something in the Air, as we watch a group of young idealists rage against the injustices in the world whilst also trying to figure out their own lives. Set in the early 1970s, this film looks and sounds the part, with a beautiful washed-out colour palette matched by a cracking soundtrack.

The storyline of Something in the Air feels a little uneven as it lurches between revolutionary activities and the human drama of the characters, however there's an underlying warmth to this film that makes it an enjoyable watch. The characters feel real, to the extent that this feels like just a snapshot of their lives, and that they lived before and after the small period we spend with them.

This isn't a flawless film. I would've liked to have spent a bit more time with some of the characters, getting to know their motivations deeper. However, provided you don't find the politics off-putting it's a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

Olivier Assayas's film 'Something in the Air' is an affectionate, although not uncritical, look at the lives of young French radicals after 1968. Watching it, you get an interesting sense of an era when students were interested in something other than building their careers (although the protagonists don't all completely abandon their bourgeois dreams); there's also the contrast between their profound political beliefs, and the feeling that their beloved freedom is basically the freedom of being young and moneyed - the revolution as a gap year, so to speak. The way that a life spent chasing experience ultimately does not build the foundation of lasting relationships is also well-conveyed. Overall, the cast are a little too beautiful - who wouldn't be a revolutionary when the benefits were so obvious? - and if the film has a serious weak-point, it's in not fully explaining quite why youth was drawn to the counter-culture except in a vague, spirit-of-the-age type way. A final quibble - the English translation of the French title (Apres Mai) is an awful one, better befitting a light romantic comedy.