François, one of a crowd of intense jeunesse dorée who are involved in the fervour of May ’68, then live through its anti-climactic aftermath. Following the abortive revolution, everyday reality hits the friends with a crash: François is hauled up for avoiding national service (his defence lawyer pleads that the army would impede his blossoming as a poet), and falls in love with sculptor Lilie while their well-heeled friend Antoine hands round the opium pipe. Shot in stark black and white by William Lubtchansky, this vivid evocation of a misunderstood golden age, of its ideologies and myths, combines bitter nostalgia and the cold breath of socio-political reality. At once personal Proustian reminiscence and a very public conjuring of ghosts, Garrel's film is as celebratory as it is melancholy.