Director: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Clement Metayer, Lola Creton, Felix Armand
Screening at: Venice, Toronto, New York
Why: Long one of France's most interesting and versatile auteurs, Olivier Assayas propelled himself onto the international arthouse A-list with his last two projects, “Summer Hours” and the much-garlanded “Carlos.” The latter's almost tangible evocation of 1970s polyester and politics looks set to resurface in Assayas's latest, a semi-autobiographical study of a group of Parisian teenagers uncertainly caught up in the country's rebellious youth scene, where sexual self-discovery and anti-government demonstrations are the order of the day. Evidently personal, long on subtext, and filled with fresh (and awfully pretty) French faces, it seems safe to assume that “Something in the Air” will be not another teen movie.

-Guy Lodge