HAROLD & MAUDE - May Film Fest

A flick that went from failure to fabled.  A dud when it first screened, within ten years Harold and Maude found a quirky cadre of devoted fans that grew into legions. 

Harold & Maude is about the absurd yet fabulous pairing of a barely out of his teens young man & a gypsy-at-heart, shoot-for-the-moon octogenarian.  

1. 

Although Bud Cort was forever typecast as the brooding 20-year old, he doesn’t seem to care – small price to pay for a) starring in an ageless cult classic & b) playing a love interest of the FABULOUS Ruth Gordon - taking pride in talking about the off-beat story behind the story, his pairing with a Hollywood great, the small tales of an ultimately mega hit.

It earns its spot as the final pick of the o2e May Film Fest with its balance of light & dark, gallows humor & love of life, worldly wisdom & romantic innocence which obliterate the lines that typically separate us - class, gender & age.  And then there is the unforgettable soundtrack by Cat Stevens (recommended by Elton John, who’d turned down the gig).


Wonderful scene ~  The pair is in a daisy field. Maude says: "You know Harold, I'd like to come back as a sunflower most of all. They're so big and hearty. What would you like to come back as?" Harold responds by saying "One of these" (meaning one of the daisies). Maude asks, "How come?" and he replies, "Because they're all alike."

"Oh no, Harold," she protests. "They're not all alike! You see, some grow to the left, some to the right, some have even lost petals, all SORTS of observer able differences . . . You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sadness comes from someone who is this" (she picks a daisy from the field) -- "but yet ALLOWS themselves to be treated as that" (gesturing to the entire field of daisies).

To which I say, "Yes, yes & YES!"