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A Film Review: Harold and Maude
An eccentric cult classic. Sort of Rocky Horror meets, Marilyn Manson meets Love Story
If you think you are an outsider, strange, bizarre, etc. then this is the film you have been waiting for. Harold and Maude is a 1971 American coming-of-age Existentialist, Romantic, Black Comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. The plot revolves around the exploits of a young man named Harold Chasen who is intrigued with death and connects to a very old woman who may be stranger than he is. They are a match made in heaven, or maybe hell?
Starring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort, as mentioned the plot revolves around Harold Chasen. Harold stages elaborate fake suicides, attends funerals, and drives a hearse, all to the chagrin of his socialite mother. She sets him up appointments with a psychoanalyst, but the analyst is befuddled by the case and fails to get Harold to talk about his real emotions.
At another stranger’s funeral service, Harold meets Maude a 79-year-old woman who shares Harold’s hobby of attending funerals. He is entranced by her quirky outlook on life, which is bright and excessively carefree in contrast with his morbidity. The pair form a bond and Maude shows Harold the pleasures of art and music (including how to play banjo), and teaches him how to…
