Director: Hal Ashby
Cast: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles
Cerificate:15
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Special Features: Audio commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and producer Charles B. Mulvehill,40 page booklet featuring archival interviews with director Hal Ashby and writer-producer Colin Higgins, a 1971 profile of star Ruth Gordon and rare archival imagery.
I was really pleased when I recieved HAROLD AND MAUDE to review. I had seen it as a teenager and had really enjoyed it as it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The film has it all, romance,drama, comedy and a fantastic soundtrack by Cat Stevens.
HAROLD AND MAUDE is set around the friendship between two rather extraordianry people. Bud Cort plays Harold, a young troubled man who is desperate for his rich mother’s affections. He likes to stage these elaborate suicides but as time goes on his mother is more concerned with her society status and finding him a girlfriend. Did I mention he also loves to go to funerals? At one of the funerals he meets 79 year old Maude, a free thinking woman who likes to see the beauty of life in everything.
The most beautiful aspect of this film is the change in Harold. Maude makes him embrace life and by the end of the film he is genuinely happy in his life. The friendship soons turns to romance and although this is one of the most unlikely romantic pairings ever, there is nothing icky about it. The love they share for each other is pure and just as meaningful for Maude as it is for Harold.
Cat Stevens’s beautiful soundtrack really gives this film a carefree feeling that I haven’t felt in many films. The poetry of Stevens’ lyrics matches the poetry onscreen wonderfully. This film is extremely underrated and often forgot about when people think of romantic comedies. It is dark in places and the opening scene would probably make you think you were in for something rather depressing. But I urge you to keep with it as by the end of the film you will be smiling and have this wonderful warmth inside. If you like your romance and comedy to be a little more sophisticated then this is a film you will enjoy. However if you like silly, childlike fun, this is also a film you will enjoy.
Filmed in 1971 at the back of the 60’s free love movement and in the middle of the Vietnam war, there is something very anti-establishment about this film. Harold’s miltary uncle and his war stories are hilarious and they shoudn’t be but that is just how this film is. You start taking on the beliefs that Harold and Maude cherish and you start looking at your own and try to encorporate some of it into your own lifestyle. I’m not saying you should just go out and take a random car or dig up public trees, but if you sop taking everything for granted, you may see there is a lot of beauty and fun to be had in life.
[usr=5] HAROLD AND MAUDE is released on Blu-ray and DVD from 14th July.
