The Film is Harold and Maude and everything about it is wonderful. Despite the fact that upon release in 1971 it bombed at the box office, it is now regarded to as a coveted cult classic. With Ruth Gordon and Bud Court as the leads, and a fitting musical score supplied by the one and only Cat Stevens the movie was destined for greatness.
Harold is a young man (boy really) who has an infatuation with death. Maude is an old woman with a young soul and true zeal for life. The seemingly opposite characters meet at a funeral and soon become each others counterparts. Taking place all around San Francisco with Maude pulling such stunts as stealing cars, posing for a nude sculpture, and smoking from a hookah; the film is far from realistic, but that’s not what it’s all about. It is often forgotten that film is an art form and art is what it is. Harold and Maude doesn’t follow your typical dark romantic comedy route or even drama, it is in a league of all its own. It’s about love, life, and how amazing the relation between two people can be.
When we first meet Harold he in a large room ornately decorated with classical era tapestries and furniture. As “Don’t be Shy” by Cat Stevens plays the viewer is caught off guard when Harold proceeds to hang himself. Contrary to common thought he is not dead, and the opening scene is the introduction to Harold’s pseudo-immolate behavior.
Harold and Maude is tricky because it’s more of a “read between the lines” type of film and can be interpreted in infinite ways fitted to each individual viewer. To the indifferent somewhat callous viewer Harold and Maude is nothing more than a disturbing love story between a seventy-nine year old woman and nineteen year old boy. Others may disagree and believe it is about finding love in life regardless of the trivial details of age, society, and time.
The photography (directed by John Alonzo) is a perfect fit to the quirky characters. Most shots were long and used a lot of panning to follow the characters and show the detail of what was going on. Sound too (directed by William Randall) was key to the poetic beauty of Harold and Maude. Cat Stevens music played nondigetically throughout the majority of the film until the final scene where Randall showed his true genius and mixed up the digetic and nondigetic sound. The sound drove home what was appearing on the screen in such a way that brilliance doesn't even begin to describe.
Harold is a young man (boy really) who has an infatuation with death. Maude is an old woman with a young soul and true zeal for life. The seemingly opposite characters meet at a funeral and soon become each others counterparts. Taking place all around San Francisco with Maude pulling such stunts as stealing cars, posing for a nude sculpture, and smoking from a hookah; the film is far from realistic, but that’s not what it’s all about. It is often forgotten that film is an art form and art is what it is. Harold and Maude doesn’t follow your typical dark romantic comedy route or even drama, it is in a league of all its own. It’s about love, life, and how amazing the relation between two people can be.
When we first meet Harold he in a large room ornately decorated with classical era tapestries and furniture. As “Don’t be Shy” by Cat Stevens plays the viewer is caught off guard when Harold proceeds to hang himself. Contrary to common thought he is not dead, and the opening scene is the introduction to Harold’s pseudo-immolate behavior.
Harold and Maude is tricky because it’s more of a “read between the lines” type of film and can be interpreted in infinite ways fitted to each individual viewer. To the indifferent somewhat callous viewer Harold and Maude is nothing more than a disturbing love story between a seventy-nine year old woman and nineteen year old boy. Others may disagree and believe it is about finding love in life regardless of the trivial details of age, society, and time.
The photography (directed by John Alonzo) is a perfect fit to the quirky characters. Most shots were long and used a lot of panning to follow the characters and show the detail of what was going on. Sound too (directed by William Randall) was key to the poetic beauty of Harold and Maude. Cat Stevens music played nondigetically throughout the majority of the film until the final scene where Randall showed his true genius and mixed up the digetic and nondigetic sound. The sound drove home what was appearing on the screen in such a way that brilliance doesn't even begin to describe.
Hal Ashby's direction of Colin Higgins work was spottless. The roles of Harold and Maude fit Court and Gordon like a glove and the unexpected chemistry between the two was undeniable. A film whose profits were dismal at the box office and yet lasted thirty something years without loosing it's poetic beauty has got to be a film worth seeing at least once wouldn't you think?
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