“Once Bruce had given us permission to use his music, the pressure was on me to use it well, in a way that he and his fans would appreciate,” smiles Chadha. Manzoor has been delighted that filmgoers from diverse backgrounds relate to Javed, as well as the character based on his own late father he adds that his own favourite coming-of-age films, This Is England and An Education, might not reflect his cultural or social background, but their teen perspective still resonates. The universality of coming-of-age cinema is its key strength. “I think Gurinder increased the political context of my story the overbearing sense of feeling like an outsider in the 80s is also timely for what’s happening now.” “This is an utterly mainstream, crowd-pleasing film, but it’s not flimsy,” says Manzoor. The stakes also seem really high it’s about the shaping of who we become.”īlinded by The Light’s unabashedly feel-good spirit and 1980s kitsch is also spiked with unsettling moments: there are raw depictions of racism, as well as the hardship of immigrant life (Ghir’s performance as Javed’s strict dad, smartly suited yet dejected at the job centre, is often heartbreaking). I like the fact that when you’re 16, you can be open-hearted and full of passion and energy. “It also captures a really uncynical moment. “It’s a really reassuring genre you kind of know what’s going to happen, but you enjoy the journey on the way,” he tells BBC Culture. Manzoor also points to the enduring appeal of the teen movie. Young lovers and fighters, misfits and prom nighters are kindred spirits across the decades, whether in the first wave of US hits like The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause the 1980s reign of John Hughes’s Brat Pack films (many starring quintessential teen queen Molly Ringwald, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink) or new releases such as Blinded by the Light, which unfolds in the relatively unglamorous English town of Luton in 1987, yet is unmistakably excitable at heart. As film critic Mark Kermode argued in his Secrets Of Cinema series, its lifeblood is “characters on the cusp of something, struggling with that netherworld between childhood and adulthood”, and their quest for identity and authenticity. Why do female characters have to be ‘likeable’?Ĭoming-of-age cinema spans languages and genres its settings and soundtracks frequently shape-shift, but its core elements never really grow old. The most important relationship of all? In his 2007 book Teenage: The Prehistory Of Youth Culture: 1875-1945, British cultural commentator Jon Savage notes that: “the spread of American-style consumerism, the rise of sociology as an academic discipline and market research as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and sheer demographics turned adolescents into Teenagers.” If teenage culture was ‘born’ in the wake of World War Two, then its pulse was immediately connected to cinema: as a vivid reflection of youthful experience, and (for savvy Hollywood studios) recognition of a fresh new audience. Nothing captures our teenage dreams – and dramas – quite like the big screen.
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