Is it a black comedy? Or, perhaps, a tragic love story? A satire? A concert film, loaded with classic tunes from Cat Stevens?
All of the above? Film fans, critics and arthouse venues have praised it over the years and can see in it so very much, yes, black comedy, satire, love story … and more.
Paramount Home Entertainment announced this past week that the newest addition to its “Paramount Presents” promotional line of Blu-ray products will be none other than a 50th Anniversary Edition of director Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude.
A new 4K film restoration from the original camera negative will be released on Dec. 7.
Harold (Bud Cort — Brewster McCloud, M*A*S*H, etc.) is, on the surface, a spoiled rich kid with only two interests. These are, staging mock suicides for the benefit of his mother (an inspired performance by Vivian Pickles — Sunday Bloody Sunday, Elizabeth R) and attending random funerals.
We learn the reason for his suicide fetish as the story unfolds, but it is his attendance at the funerals of complete strangers that moves the story forward. He is so invested in the funeral settings that he purchases a junked hearse, and being rich — with plenty of time on his hands — restores it to pristine condition. He begins to notice an old woman at many of the same burials and memorial services.
Her name is Maude and she is played by Ruth Gordon, who was nominated for Oscars on five separate occasions, but not all for acting. During the early 50s, she began writing scripts with her husband, Garson Kanin, and the pair ended with Oscar nominations for A Double Life, Adam’s Rib and Pat and Mike … on the acting side, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1965 for Inside Daisy Clover and won the Oscar for her performance in Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby in 1968.
Maude has no way to attend these gatherings unless she “borrows” a car, truck, motorcycle, you name it, whatever is handy. And so, the pair are finally introduced when she “borrows” Harold’s hearse … they become good friends, go on many adventures and he falls in love.
Meanwhile, his mother — in a running gag — is always setting up Harold with “dates,” young women who have absolutely nothing in common with her son.
The third act of Harold and Maude is bittersweet as Harold has blissfully ignored all of Maude’s end-of-life banter.
Bonus features include commentary from filmmakers Larry Karaszewski and Cameron Crowe, plus the newly-prepared featurette titled “Yusuf/Cat Stevens on Harold and Maude.”
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