“You’re tearing me apart” A adolescência americana dos anos 50 e a juvenilização do cinema em Juventude Transviada (1955), de Nicholas Ray

Abstract

With the arrival of television in American homes in the late 1940s, the Hollywood film industry faced a great period of instability, as social habits were modified and a portion of the population opted for the comfort of their suburban home rather than having to go to a movie theater in cities. Due to the crisis in Hollywood production, the studios bet on some alternatives, among them, teenpictures, films about and for young people. One of the factors that influenced this choice is due to the fact that adolescents, in the 1950s, were seen by the media as a consumer group with great potential, since, due to the prosperity of the PostSecond World War, they experienced a better economic condition. Among the films about young people produced at that time was Rebel Without a Cause, directed by Nicholas Ray. Based on it, this work aims to discuss American teenagers in the 1950s and seek to understand the process of juvenilization of Hollywood cinema. It is intended, from the study of the respective film as a basis, but also through magazine advertisements, contemporary works and supporting texts, to study the behavior of young people, their influence on the fashion of the time and its importance for American cinema.