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Harold and Maude
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Harold and Maude is a cult classic film directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. The film, featuring slapstick, dark humour, and existentialist drama, revolves around the exploits of a morbid young man – Harold (played by Bud Cort) – who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, as he develops a relationship with septuagenarian Maude (played by Ruth Gordon).
The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time,, number 69 in its list for most romantic , and number 42 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
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Encyclopedia
Harold and Maude is a cult classic film directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. The film, featuring slapstick, dark humour, and existentialist drama, revolves around the exploits of a morbid young man – Harold (played by Bud Cort) – who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, as he develops a relationship with septuagenarian Maude (played by Ruth Gordon).
The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time,, number 69 in its list for most romantic , and number 42 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film was a commercial failure when it was released, and the critical reception was extremely mixed; however, it has since developed a large cult following .
The screenplay upon which the film was based was written by Colin Higgins, and published as a novel in 1971. The movie was shot in the San Francisco Bay Area. Harold and Maude was also a play on Broadway for some time. A French adaptation for television, translated and written by Jean-Claude Carrière, appeared in 1978. It was adapted for the stage and performed in Québec, starring Roy Dupuis.
Plot synopsis
The movie opens to introduce Harold Chasen (Bud Cort), a boy of nineteen who fakes his own death numerous times in a desperate attempt for his mother’s attention. Harold and his mother, (Vivian Pickles), live in a mansion in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mrs. Chasen throws a lavish dinner party which is followed by Harold “killing himself” in his mother’s dressing room. He squirts fake blood over her mirrors and himself. Mrs. Chasen declares that it is “too much” and sends him to counseling. After a brief interaction with his counselor, Harold drives with his hearse to a stranger’s funeral. This is the first time Harold sees Maude (Ruth Gordon).
Upon arriving home, his mother sees his car and lectures him about growing up. She tries to convince him to join the Army like Harold’s uncle Victor, and thinks it is time for Harold to get married. The next day, Harold goes to another funeral and sees Maude again. Maude moves in closer to Harold and strikes up a conversation with him, offering him licorice, and admitting she does not know the person who died. Maude tells Harold that she does know the man who died was eighty: the proper age to die. The pair moves outside after the funeral where Maude steals the priest’s car. At the next funeral, Maude pulls beside Harold and offers him a ride home in his car which she has stolen. After getting in his car, Maude takes Harold back to her “house,” a derailed train car. Maude offers him tea, but Harold declines, going instead to his counseling meeting where he admits he has no friends.
Candy Gulf is Harold’s first blind date. She shows up and watches as Harold fakes his own death by setting himself on fire. She runs from the house screaming. When Harold visits Maude for the second time, she is having an ice sculpture cut while modeling nude. Maude shows Harold her vaporizer that plays scents such as snowfall on 42nd Street. Maude tells Harold that everyone should be able to play an instrument and Harold takes to a banjo. They drink tea which is followed by a montage of date scenes including one where Maude is transfixed by a helpless tree in the city. After illegally parking and admiring the tree, Maude decides to steal the tree… and another car.
Harold's mother gives him a new Jaguar as a gift; she “took away” the hearse. Later on, Harold morphs the Jaguar into yet another hearse. The next scene shows Maude and Harold driving the tree to the forest where it can be free. The pair evade the law, plant the tree, and get pulled over (ironically enough), by the same cop. Harold and Maude steal the cop’s bike and ride back to Maude’s house. The pair smokes hookah and Harold opens up about his life at home.
Harold’s second date is with Edith Phern. To escape this date, Harold chops off his hand in front of Edith and his mother. Fed up with his antics, Mrs. Chasen sends Harold to talk to his Uncle Victor about joining the armed forces. Taking his uncle to the coast, Harold pretends to become transfixed with his war stories. A protester (Maude) begins a dispute with Harold and the uncle (not knowing who Maude is) watches in horror as the woman falls to her “death.” The subject of Harold joining the Army is abandoned.
To celebrate their victory, Harold and Maude go to the bay and watch the sun set. As Harold goes to hold Maude’s hand, he notices numbers tattooed on her arm. The next day, Harold goes on his third and final blind date with a Miss “Sunshine” Doré. He shows her his seppuku sword and begins to stab himself. Dore, an actress, sees right through his act and reenacts the death scene of Romeo and Juliet.
Dodging another date, Harold takes Maude to the fair, after which the couple sleep together. The next day, Harold tells his mother he is going to marry Maude. Mrs. Chasen subsequently sends Harold to see his uncle, counselor, and priest, all of whom disapprove. Harold throws Maude a surprise 80th birthday party, decorating the inside of her home with sunflowers, and after the party Maude admits that she has taken poison tablets and will be gone by midnight. As she had said before, eighty years old is the proper age to die.
Rushed to the hospital, Maude dies. In the morning, Harold drives his car off of a cliff, faking his death one last time. Harold skips on the edge of the cliff, playing his banjo.
Themes
Hal Ashby, the director of the film, shared certain ideals with the era's youth culture, and in this film he contrasts the doomed outlook of the alienated youth of the time with the hard-won optimism of those who endured the horrors of the early 20th century, contrasting nihilism with purpose. Maude's past is revealed in a glimpse of the concentration camp ID number tattooed on her arm.
Harold is part of a society in which he has no personal importance; and existentially, therefore, he is without meaning. Maude, however, has survived and lives a life rich with meaning. It is in this existential crisis, shown against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, that we see the differences between one culture, personified by Harold, handling a meaningless war, while another has experienced and lived beyond another war that produced a crisis of meaning, the Holocaust.
Suicide attempts
Harold tells Maude when they are talking candidly at her home the reasons he fakes his death so often. Once, when he was at boarding school, he set his science lab on fire. Escaping the fire, Harold slid down the laundry chute and left to hide at home. When the authorities came, Harold couldn’t be found. Believed to be dead, the police come to the Chasens' home and told Mrs. Chasen that Harold was dead. Coming up from the back balcony, Harold watched as his mother fell over in grief for the police officers. Harold tells Maude, “I decided then I enjoyed being dead.”
Throughout the movie, Harold “kills” himself a total of eight times. He tells his psychologist that he has done similar attempts approximately 15 times.
1. Hanging himself in opening scene: Harold hangs himself while his mother is on the phone in the opening scene, in which she barely blinks twice.
2. Slitting his throat in his mother’s bathroom: after this act, we see Harold seeing a psychiatrist.
3. Floating dead in pool: Harold floats face down, fully clothed, as his mother swims laps around him.
4. Shooting towards his head: Harold initially points a gun at his mother and then shoots close to his head as his mother is reading off the questionnaire for his dating service.
5. Fire: For the first blind date, Harold pretends to set himself on fire, scaring away his date.
6. Hand chopping: The second blind dates ends abruptly with Harold chopping off a fake hand.
7. Romeo scene: For the final date, Harold stabs himself with a fake hari-kari sword. Instead of this date running off as the others have, Sunshine Doré instead lies down beside him and “dies” with him.
8. Car: Harold sends his Jaguar/hearse off a cliff. From the initial scene, the audience may believe Harold was stricken with enough grief from Maude’s death to kill himself. However, the camera pans up to the cliff to show Harold playing Maude's banjo and dancing away casually.
Influences
Filmmakers who have demonstrated the influence of this classic include Bobby and Peter Farrelly, who pay tribute to the film in their movie There's Something About Mary in which the character of Mary thinks that Harold and Maude is "the greatest love story of our time". Wes Anderson has also demonstrated the influence of the film, featuring two songs by Cat Stevens in Rushmore , and writing a part specifically for actor Bud Cort in The Life Aquatic.
Honors
Harold and Maude is #45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Year... 100 Laughs, the list of the top 100 films in American comedy. The list was released in 2000. Two years later, AFI released the list AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions honoring the most romantic films for the past 100 years, Harold and Maude ranked #69. Entertainment Weekly ranked the film #4 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films".
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten" – the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres – after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Harold and Maude was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the romantic comedy genre.
American Film Institute recognition
Cast
*Dame Marjorie Chardin (Maude): Ruth Gordon A 79 year old spitfire who wears her hair in braids across her head like a crown. Horrible driver, enjoys music, and she believes in living each day like it is your last. The movie does not mention anything about her tattoo, believed to be a Holocaust tattoo.
- Harold Chasen: Bud Cort A 19 year old, pale boy (he becomes more tan as the film progresses) who craves human interaction but is smothered by his mother’s controlled, materialistic world. Obsessed with death, he drives a hearse, attends random funerals and fakes suicides, for effect. Through meeting and falling in love with Maude, he discovers there is more to life than death and begins living for the first time.
- Mrs. Chasen: Vivian Pickles Harold's mother, a wealthy, middle aged woman who surrounds herself with the best of everything. Hoping to straighten out her son, Mrs. Chasen arranges computer dates and buys him lavish gifts, all to no avail.
- Glaucus: Cyril Cusack The sculptor who makes the ice statue of Maude and lends them his tools to transport the tree.
- Uncle Victor: Charles Tyner Harold’s uncle, who is a military general. He tries to persuade Harold to join the armed forces.
- Sunshine Doré: Ellen Geer An actress, who is about 20 years old. Harold’s third blind date, she lies down and “dies” beside him.
- Priest: Eric Christmas Maude steals his car. He also tells Harold not to marry Maude.
- Psychiatrist: G. Wood
- Candy Gulf: Judy Engles Harold’s first blind date, whom he scares off by pretending to set himself on fire.
- Edith Phern: Shari Summers Harold’s second blind date, whom he scares off by pretending to cut off his hand. This act is what makes Mrs. Chasen send Harold to talk to Uncle Victor about the armed forces.
- Motorcycle Officer: Tom Skerritt (as M. Borman)
- Director Hal Ashby has a cameo in the picture.
Music
The soundtrack is by Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam), and includes two songs, "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out", that he composed specifically for the movie, and which were unavailable on vinyl for over a decade; they were eventually released in 1984 on the compilation Footsteps in the Dark. A vinyl LP soundtrack was released in Japan, although without the two songs Cat Stevens wrote for the film, and including five songs not actually in the film ("Morning Has Broken," "Wild World," "Father & Son," "Lilywhite" and "Lady D'Arbanville"). The first official soundtrack to the film was released in December 2007, by Vinyl Films Records, as a vinyl-only limited edition release of 2500 copies. It contained a 30-page oral history of the making of the film, the most extensive series of interviews yet conducted on "Harold and Maude."
Track listing
This is the track listing for the first official release of the soundtrack to Harold and Maude.
External links
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