Un genere commerciale. L’origine del teen movie come terreno di exploitation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to address the ontology of the teen movie genre as the product of the interaction between process of production and consumption. In fact, more than other cinematographic genres, the teen movie seems to be a chiefly commercial one: to effectively understand its origin and its development, it is crucial to investigate the relationship between the production practices of American film industry and the cultural habits of cinematic audiences. Analyzing teen movies as a genre implies also recognizing and circumscribing the socio-cultural context and the economic conjunctures in which they were produced and released for the first time, with the aim of appealing to an emerging demographic and a newly overriding market niche – teenagers. In this sense, the experience of the film production company AIP and the exploitation movies realized in the Fifties seem to be particularly pertinent. Thus, in this perspective, it is necessary to rethink the teen movie genre as the ultimate product of a commodity culture in which teen audience, as well as teen market, have a new, unprecedented preeminent relevance.