I'm really not that turned on by vampire lust, but when I was offered the chance to accompany a Year 10 Media class to a Schools' Film Week screening instead of loitering without intent at school on the offchance that someone might be ill and need me to cover their lesson, I accepted the offer.
I'd seen the Swedish version of the film we were going to see, so I was ready for the American interpretation of a story full of blood, death and a sensitive handling of the bullying issue, tempered slightly by what would be referred to as "a tender love story".
What I was not prepared for were the reactions of our pupils who have all the emotional maturity of a shoal of turbot.
Why do teenagers feel compelled to cover up their true feelings by laughing inappropriately? As the solitary and much put upon protagonist, Owen, asks his vampiric heroine if she wants to "go steady", there were gales of laughter. As Abby reaches up to stroke the aging face of her one-time companion to acknowledge all he has done for her, there were hoots and sniggers. As Owen is dragged through the swimming pool changing rooms in his trunks, our moronic audience giggled with glee.
Is it me?
Am I now so old that I have forgotten that I, too, must have snickered along with my peers as they laughed out loud when Leo discovered Marian and Ted making hay while the sun shone in that sweltering summer of 1900...
...or maybe we didn't laugh during that pivotal scene in The Go-Between. Maybe we had a bit of emotional sensitivity back then.
I like to believe we had some sense and knew that laughing out loud to cover up for feelings we didn't understand was inappropriate back in the good ole days of Fifth Form English...
Or it could just be me turning into a cantankerous 40 year old who just doesn't understand the youth she teaches.
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