I really don't think that openness to the subject is a question of neither young nor old age...
I was already 27 when I first watched it and never had the feeling that its message was restricted to a certain age group!
I'd say that as soon as you're old enough to know how it feels to be in love, you're old enough to learn and understand that (1)
being in love with the
wrong kind of person can be the toughest thing you ever had to go through while (2)
not being loved by the
right kind of person can be the hardest. In both cases, you're old enough for FÅ.
Still, I wouldn't show FÅ in classes, but for the rather general reason that you already mentioned, Sydney: It is a rather well-known fact that the best way to totally ruin and spoil a film for someone is to force him/her to watch and talk about it in front of teachers and classmates. (This applies to books, too). Chances are that you will not allow yourself to open up to it because you think that you have to find it terrible just because your teacher chose it, or because the wrong kind of people from your class seem to like it, or because you have a reputation to lose as a tough guy, or whatever... Whenever I read one of the few really slanderous negative reviews of FÅ that are out there, I get the feeling that something like this must be the reason.