A review of the odd film “Harold And Maude”
I was chatting with an American friend and conversation turned to funerals. He mentioned a film from half a century ago – it was released in 1971 – that, in spite of being something of a film buff, I’d never heard of, let alone seen – so I looked it up.Harold (Bud Cort) is a young man in his late teens who has had a privileged but dysfunctional life which has resulted in him having a passion for (fake) suicide, an obsession with (yes) funerals and (understandably) a depressed personality.
At one of these funerals, he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon), a woman coming up to 80 who is even more eccentric than him but has an infectious exuberance for life. Somehow this movie manages to be both a black comedy and a love story with a life-affirming message.
When it was released, “Harold And Maude” was a critical and commercial flop, but it seems that, over the years, it has become something of a cult work. It’s certainly a curio. You might like to give it a go.