a film by Philippe Garrel
In the aftermath of the era-defining Paris student riots of May 1968, a group of youngsters involved in the revolt abandon themselves to a bohemian existence and the fumes of opium. At the centre of the group, romance develops between François and Lilie, but they soon find their love and idealism under threat from the harsh realities of everyday life.
François is a 20-year-old poet, dodging military service. He takes to the barricades, but refuses to throw a Molotov cocktail at the police. He smokes opium and talks about revolution with his friend, Antoine, who has an inheritance and an apartment where François can stay. François then meets Lilie, a sculptor who works at a foundry to support herself, and they fall in love. A year passes and François continues to write, talk, smoke, and be with Lilie. But then opportunities come to Lilie to move her life forward – what will she and François do?
In his award-winning feature from 2005, conceived as a response to Bertolucci's 'The Dreamers', which also starred Louis Garrel, writer/director Philippe Garrel reflects on his own experiences as a 20-year-old at the barricades in 1968 and atmospherically recalls the pioneering cinema of the nouvelle vague. An affectionate, dream-like elegy to youthful idealism, this beautifully shot and bittersweet portrait is also a haunting and mesmerising evocation of a lost age.
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