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HAROLD
AND MAUDE
9/10
USA 1971 : Hal Ashby : 90mins
A
bona-fide cult classic, Harold and Maude has lost none of
its power to entertain, charm and surprise three decades on. The unlikely
romance between 20-year-old, moon-faced, proto-goth Harold (Bud Cort)
and uber-sprightly 80-year-old Maude (Ruth Gordon) remains one
of the cinema’s most memorable love affairs – and the film’s idiosyncratic
character and atmosphere make it one of the least-dated ‘counter-culture’
titles churned out by Hollywood in the aftermath of Easy Rider.
Though
far from perfect (Paramount got cold feet and, according to Cort, cut
much vital material) Harold and Maude remains a special film,
with many great scenes and lines. Its influence has been enormous, from
Annie Hall onwards.
Wes Anderson must have had it in mind when putting together Rushmore,
though Ashby makes even more copious use of Cat Stevens tunes for
his intergenerational romance than Anderson - the virtually wall-to-wall
Stevens music is the aspect of the film that seems the most dated.
The humour, however, remains strong - the skilful comic timing of director Ashby
and editors William Sawyer and Edward Warschilka milk every laugh out
of Colin Higgins’ sly, economic script. Then the last five minutes feature
a plot development which, though signalled all the way through, is unexpectedly
poignant – a triumph for Gordon, who copes brilliantly with the thankless
task of embodying a very hippie-ish form of the ‘life-force.’ Cort, meanwhile,
is even more striking in what’s arguably an even tougher role – magnetic
even in his many still moments, it’s very much his movie: a unique
performance in a unique film.
2nd December, 2002
(seen 1st December, CineSide,
Newcastle)
by Neil
Young
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