‘We’re teenagers, but we didn’t always exist’ – Teenage (2013)

I finally got to watch ‘Teenage‘ which I had been dying to see for a couple of months now so deciding to randomly check the website again today I was delighted to find it’s now available on Netflix! I already knew what the soundtrack was like when I ravenously clicked on everything on the main site all that time ago, but getting to hear it combined with the silent footage was a joy. Bradford Cox is a genius, the whole thing flowed beautifully.

I enjoyed the scrapbook-esque quality of the film with the main black and white footage woven cleverly with voiceovers, diarising the history of German, British and US culture and how they saw ‘the youth’ before anyone had really come up with the concept or even the word ‘teenager’. (Incidentally it wasn’t until 1945 until the name was first used in America – can you believe that??) There is a continuous upbeat rebellious vibe which I feel is balanced out by the more subdued reminders of real events – the great depression, the world wars, all which let you empathise with the people you see on screen.  It does give a poignant sense of survival but I think that the seriousness was important – it showed young people to be continually resilient in times of great struggle in a positive light, giving insight to exactly how they saw themselves and not being sorry for it.

It’s a seriously good documentary and it feels timeless to watch given the fast paced multitude of eye-candy available – seriously one second you’re looking at big cheesy smiles and swing dancing, the next it’s cut to sparks spraying out as girls learn mechanics for the war effort. It’s lovely, would definitely recommend watching it as it depicts a perspective that still seems to be very relevant now even though times have evolved and moved on so much.

“No, please don’t kill me , Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!” – Scream 1996

Second day into the second week back at school and already I am exhausted. After psych class me and a friend went to get coffee and tried not to stress out too much. Really, my film coursework should be fun; with halloween around the corner I decided to do my research project on 70’s-80’s golden age slasher movies. I’ll be looking into final girl theory and feminism, buuuuut I only have 24 days to find my sources and gather together an annotated catalogue. Eeek. Carol J Clover where are you when I need you???

The stuff I’ve found so far had been really cool though, for example I never knew that Italian Giallo or ‘yellow’ films and German Krimi genre all contributed to setting the conventions of a typical slasher – as well as of course the mighty Hollywood era shaking things up with Hitchcock and films like ‘Carrie‘ which literally changed the face of horror forever. (*whispers* but I still prefer to new one. shhh.) Sadly I can’t really include this in my presentation, but I figure the history is still good to know! Shall persevere whilst my t.v screen gets internally splattered with corn syrup and risk accidentally waking my sister up with the piercing shrieks of good ol’ Jamie Lee.

‘Toto, I got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’ – The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Okay, so here’s the deal. I’m a film student and being a total geek about most things (not just film!) I will seek out any excuse to talk, write or even, y’know, sing songs about film.

…The latter just me? Probably just me.

Anyhow, in the hopes to help my studies out and to practise writing about the visual arts, setting up a blog seemed the best way to do it. So go forth and enjoy the ramblings of a slightly crazed 6th form student in the midst of A levels, numerous  cups of tea and far too many scrunched up pieces of paper.