-
Director(s):
COURSAT (ANTOINE)
-
Producer(s):
ARTE FRANCE, ZADIG PRODUCTIONS
-
Territories:
Worldwide.
-
Production year:
2009
-
Language(s):
German, English, French
-
Rights:
TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD
From "Rebel Without a Cause" to "Superbad", American films for teens have conquered the world. A brilliantly decoded documentary, studded with key clips.
Long, locker-lined corridors, leafy campuses, raging hormones, student jokes, questionable fights between hunky athletic guys, pom-pom girls and rebellious nerds: the codes of the teen movie, derived from real US high school life, are today well-rooted in our collective imagination.
From its beginnings in the 1950s, with "Rebel Without a Cause", to the hilarious virgins of the contemporary master of the genre, Judd Apatow, via the golden age of the 1980s, this documentary goes back over the history of a trend that has been undervalued for a long time. It also looks at how teen movies, inspired by comedy, romance and the horror film, have succeeded in reflecting developments in US behaviour, and how they have matured, to become a goldmine that is as lucrative as it is devastating, even contaminating art films.
The film is supported by accounts from real-life high school students and head teachers, producers, screenwriters, directors (John Hughes, Larry Clark...) and generous extracts from de The Breakfast Club, American Graffiti, Risky Business, American Pie, Elephant, and Kids.