Venice 2012: Après mai
French director Olivier Assayas has brought to Venice nostalgic picture of the times of his youth. In the movie "Something in the Air" (Après mai) which thematically continues his own film "Cold Water", some teenagers are trying to find themselves in a chaotic world, parallel to falling in love and taking part in the protest movement.
In the original film Assayas called Apres Mai, meaning "After May." This refers, in May 1968, when the student riots exploded France. Pupils whose youth came at the beginning of the seventies, could not follow the example of elders. They also wanted to participate in the revolution, they fearlessly took to the streets against armed with sticks, batons and tear gas police. It was the scene of cruel crackdown February 9, 1971 and started painting of Assayas.
Central characters in "Something in the Air," have the same names, as in "Cold Water" - Gilles and Christine.
It seems that director was the most important thing to convey the atmosphere of his own adolescence: leftist movements, underground organizations, parties with hippie, craze contemporary art, strange love. Assayas filled the film space by the melodies that are heard at school - it's Syd Barrett, Dr. Strangely Strange, Incredible String Band, Captain Beefheart, Nick Drake.
"Something in the air" is made up of pieces, like a patchwork quilt. Unified picture of history as such is not enough, the viewer only watches maturation characters and events that this maturation somehow contribute. "Youth in the 2010s lived in this shapeless. They exist outside of history "- said Olivier Assayas.
The characters in his movie, by contrast, live for today and remember the events of the recent past, they are eager to change history. Their culture - a counterculture. According to the director, working with the young actors, he noticed how much change in the attitude of young people to the world over the past few decades.
"The issues that were previously out of focus, such as the history of the labor movement, the different approaches to the structure of the left political wing, they seem to be quite strange - said Assayas. - By the way, they also wonder why the idea of cultural policy. Their only real ideals - the clothes and the music. "