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Harold and Maude
Directed by Hal Ashby
Produced by Colin Higgins
Charles B. Hal Ashby ( September 2, 1929 - December 27, 1988) was an American film director and Academy Award -winning film editor Colin Higgins ( July 28, 1941, Nouméa, New Caledonia, France &ndash August 5, 1988, Beverly Hills California Mulvehill
Written by Colin Higgins
Starring Ruth Gordon
Bud Cort
Vivian Pickles
Eric Christmas
Cyril Cusack
Ellen Geer
G. Wood
Music by Cat Stevens
Editing by William A. Colin Higgins ( July 28, 1941, Nouméa, New Caledonia, France &ndash August 5, 1988, Beverly Hills California Ruth Gordon Jones ( October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) better known as Ruth Gordon, was an Academy Award - Bud Cort (born March 29, 1948) is an American Film and stage Actor, writer, and director. Vivian Pickles (born October 21 1931) is an English Actress. Her first nationally prominent role was on the BBC when as a Eric Cuthbert Christmas ( March 19, 1916 — July 22, 2000) was a British -Canadian stage and screen Actor, with over 40 Cyril Cusack ( November 26, 1910 &ndash October 7, 1993) was an Irish Shakespearean Actor, who appeared in more than Ellen Ware Geer (born August 29, 1941) is an American Actress, Professor, Screenwriter, Film director and George Wood ( December 31, 1919 – July 24, 2000) was an American film and television actor. Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 best known by his former Stage name Cat Stevens, is a British Musician Sawyer
Edward Warschilka
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) December 20, 1971 (U.S.)
Running time 91 min. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and Distribution company, based in Hollywood California. Events 69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $1,200,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Harold and Maude is a cult classic movie directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States A cult film is a Film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans. Hal Ashby ( September 2, 1929 - December 27, 1988) was an American film director and Academy Award -winning film editor The year 1971 in film involved some significant events Events February 8 - Bob Dylan 's hour long documentary The film, featuring slapstick, dark humor, and existentialist drama, centers around the exploits of a morbid young man — Harold — who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes him as he develops a relationship with septuagenarian Maude. Slapstick is a type of Comedy involving exaggerated physical violence or activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense such as a character being hit in the face with Black comedy, also known as black humor or dark comedy, is a sub-genre of Comedy and Satire where topics and events that are usually regarded Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence Ageing or aging (American English is the accumulation of changes in an organism

The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time,[1] and number 42 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. The American Film Institute ( AFI) is an independent Non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 Bravo is a Cable television network owned by NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film drama In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress[2] as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The National Film Registry is the registry of Films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of The Library of Congress is the De facto National library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress

The film was a commercial failure when it was released and the critical reception was extremely mixed. It now has a large cult following. A cult film is a Film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans. [3]

The screenplay upon which the film was based was written by Colin Higgins, and published as a novel in 1971. See also Pre-production Screenwriting A screenplay or script is a written plan authored by a Screenwriter, for a Film or Television Colin Higgins ( July 28, 1941, Nouméa, New Caledonia, France &ndash August 5, 1988, Beverly Hills California A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The movie was shot in the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Bay, is a geographically and ethnically diverse metropolitan region that surrounds the Harold and Maude was also a play on Broadway for some time. Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located

The movie has given rise to two new words: "Harolding" (hanging around cemeteries) described by Douglas Coupland in "Harolding in West Vancouver" (1996); and "Maudism" or "Maudianism", the philosophy of living each day to the fullest. Douglas Coupland (born December 30, 1961) is a Canadian Novelist. [4] This may also have a link to the phonetically-similar philosophy of Mod-ism. Mod (originally modernist, sometimes capitalised is a Subculture that originated in London in the late 1950s and peaked in the early to mid 1960s

The entire soundtrack for the movie is by Cat Stevens. Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 best known by his former Stage name Cat Stevens, is a British Musician

Contents

Summary

The film first introduces us to Harold, an alienated young man from a wealthy family who lives in a large mansion with his domineering mother. Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being A mansion is a large dwelling House. The word itself derives (through Old French) from the Latin word mansus (the perfect passive participle Harold stages realistic mock-suicides. This has evidently been going on for so long that his mother takes no notice, other than when Harold causes a particular mess with his fake blood. Blood is a specialized Bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells €”such as nutrients and oxygen—and transports Waste products For amusement, Harold attends funerals of people he doesn't know. A funeral is a Ceremony marking a person's Death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of Beliefs and practices used by a Culture to remember At these he repeatedly sees Maude, a woman who befriends him a week before her eightieth birthday. Maude is very much his opposite: a senior citizen, energetic, impulsive, and light-hearted. The two form an unlikely friendship and Harold becomes much more open. He learns how to play the banjo and helps Maude "liberate" a tree suffering from smog in the city to be replanted in a forest. He also tells Maude about how, after seeing his mother's reaction when he was believed to have been killed, he decided that he enjoyed being dead. Maude consoles him ("A lot of people enjoy being dead"), but tells him that life should be lived to the fullest. Meanwhile in his home, his mother feels that it is time that Harold got married. Using a dating service, she arranges for him to have three dates, all of which end disastrously as Harold creatively fakes his death for each of the girls. (The last girl, an actress, recognizes that the "suicide" is fake, but because she proceeds to act out the death of Juliet from Romeo and Juliet, Harold's mother is led to believe that Harold killed her. ) Harold and Maude become very close, until Harold gives her a token saying "Harold loves Maude" and the two sleep together. The next day, he tells his mother that he plans on marrying Maude, despite attempts by his mother, Uncle Victor, and others to dissuade him. On Maude's eightieth birthday, Harold intends to pop the question but the celebration is halted when he learns that Maude has deliberately swallowed a fatal dose of unidentified tablets: "I'll be gone by midnight. " She is rushed to the hospital; however, they are unable to save her. Harold is grief-stricken and drives his car recklessly down a road and towards a cliff overlooking a beach. The audience is led to believe that Harold is killed when the car crashes into the sand below, but it is revealed that it is only another pretend suicide. Harold is still alive on the cliff overhead. As he walks away, he takes out Maude's banjo and begins to play cheerfully.

Themes

Hal Ashby, the director of the film, was part of the San Francisco youth culture, and in this film he contrasts the doomed outlook of the alienated youth of the time against the hard won optimism of those that endured the horrors of the early 20th century, contrasting nihilism with purpose. Hal Ashby ( September 2, 1929 - December 27, 1988) was an American film director and Academy Award -winning film editor A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a Film. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city A youth subculture is a Youth -based Subculture with distinct styles behaviours and interests Maude's past is revealed in a glimpse of the concentration camp ID number tattooed on her arm. Identification of inmates in Nazi camps was performed in two ways by special Badges and by identification numbers A tattoo is a permanent marking made by inserting ink into the layers of Skin to change the pigment for decorative or other reasons

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, so that we see the difference of how one culture, personified by Harold, is handling one meaningless war, while another has experienced and lived beyond another war that produced a crisis of meaning, the Holocaust. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

Awards

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 American Film Institute ( AFI) is an independent Non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 Part of the AFI 100 Years series, AFI's 100 Years 100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 comedy movies in American cinema The list was released in 2000.

Cast

Cover of the Harold and Maude video, showing lead actors Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort
Cover of the Harold and Maude video, showing lead actors Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort

Crew

Music

The soundtrack is by Cat Stevens 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 that were unavailable for over a decade; they were eventually released in 1984 on the compilation Footsteps in the Dark. John Alonzo, ASC (born June 12 1934 in Dallas, Texas, died March 13 2001) was an American Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 best known by his former Stage name Cat Stevens, is a British Musician "If You Want To Sing Out Sing Out" is a popular song by Cat Stevens. Footsteps in the Dark Greatest Hits Vol 2 is an album released by Cat Stevens in 1984 A vinyl LP soundtrack was released in Japan, though without the two songs Cat Stevens wrote for the film but including five songs not in the film ("Morning Has Broken," "Wild World," "Father & Son," "Lilywhite" and "Lady D'Arbanville"). " Morning Has Broken " is a favorite and well-known Christian Hymn, especially popular in children's services " Wild World " is a song written and recorded by Cat Stevens. " Father and Son " is a popular song written and performed by British singer Cat Stevens on his 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman. The first official soundtrack to the film was released in December, 2007 on 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 conducted on "Harold and Maude. "

Track listing

This the track listing for the first official release of the soundtrack to Harold and Maude.

Side A:

  1. "Don't Be Shy"
  2. "On The Road To Find Out"
  3. "I Wish, I Wish"
  4. "Miles From Nowhere"
  5. "Tea for the Tillerman"
  6. "I Think I See The Light"

Side B:

  1. "Where Do The Children Play?"
  2. "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out"
  3. "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (banjo version)" - (previously unreleased)
  4. "Trouble"
  5. "Don't Be Shy (alternate version)" - (previously unreleased)
  6. "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (instrumental version)" - (previously unreleased)

Bonus 7" single: A: "Don't Be Shy (demo version)" - (previously unreleased) B: "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (alternate version)" - (previously unreleased)

Trivia

References

  1. ^ AFI's 100 YEARS...100 LAUGHS
  2. ^ http://www.loc.gov/film/titles.html National Film Registry list of films, 1989-2006
  3. ^ Peary, Danny. Danny Peary (born 1949) is an American Film critic and Sports writer. Cult Movies, Delta Books, 1981. Cult Movies is a 1981 Book by Danny Peary, consisting of a series of Essays regarding what Peary described as the 100 most representative examples ISBN 0-517-20185-2
  4. ^ HAROLD & MAUDE/Maudianism

External links

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