1968 and 1969 in Paris: during and after the student and trade union revolt. François is 20, a poet, dodging military service. He takes to the barricades, but won't throw a Molotov cocktail at the police. He smokes opium and talks about revolution with his friend, Antoine, who has an inheritance and a flat where François can stay. François meets Lilie, a sculptor who works at a foundry to support herself. They fall in love. A year passes; François continues to write, talk, smoke, and be with Lilie. Opportunities come to Lilie: what will she and François do?
Cinematography
William Lubtchansky's luminous black-and-white 35mm poetry
Acting
Louis Garrel's entire career of brooding condensed into one role
Direction
Garrel's autobiographical time-capsule of revolutionary romance
Director
Philippe Garrel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Philippe Garrel cast his own son Louis as François, making this a father-son collaboration about a generation the father actually lived through. The opium scenes? Garrel's own documented history.
Shot as deliberate counter-programming to Bernardo Bertolucci's 'The Dreamers'—Garrel hated how that film sexualized 1968. This is his corrective: revolution as boring, beautiful, and ultimately personal.
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