Ah, that wonderful time of life when we're cast adrift in a sea of hormones, floating in anxiety about the opinions of our peers and drowning in shame over the least cool people on earth - our parents! Movies about those alternately painful and joyous teenage years have formed their own genre ever since Marlon Brando (actually nearing 30) roared into town on his motorcycle as the primal personification of Misunderstood Youth in The Wild One (1953).

We arranged our festival of teen films according to themes, only to discover that several movies in each grouping were from the same decade - suggesting that each new generation of adolescents has different passions and concerns. After The Wild One, movies about "Juvenile Delinquents" became commonplace, with James Dean in an iconic performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Vic Morrow and his young friends terrorizing high school teacher Glenn Ford in Blackboard Jungle (1955), the first major studio film to have a rock 'n' roll soundtrack.

If the '50s were about rebellion, the '60s were all about fun "At the Beach," with such song-and-surf fests as Where the Boys Are (1960) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965). By the '80s, the teen movie genre had reached its commercial and artistic apex. "'80s Night" includes the archetypal performance of Tom Cruise in his star debut as a toothy teen in trouble in Risky Business (1983) and John Hughes' Sixteen Candles (1984).

"Teens in Love" proves that one theme has always characterized the young adult experience, from The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942) to Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1981), a heartfelt story of a gawky Scottish teen falling in love for the first time. The festival concludes with that other topic that has defi ned teen life, and teen movies, since the '50s - "Rock 'n' Roll." That burgeoning music form quickly became its own subgenre, as evidenced by Rock Around the Clock (1956), with Bill Haley and the Comets reprising the tune that had created a sensation in Blackboard Jungle, and the King himself in Jailhouse Rock (1957).

by Roger Fristoe