Culture

Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles.
Harold is a young man, perhaps late teens/early twenties. He enjoys staging suicide attempts and going to funerals. Maude is seventy-nine, she enjoys stealing cars, collecting and making art-works and going to funerals. What a match!
Harold has an obsession with death. He comes from a privileged background but this comes with a price; an overbearing mother. He regularly attempts to kill himself in order to scare his mother. Throughout the course of the movie Harold is shot, set on fire, drowns, hangs himself, has his hand cut off and slits his wrists. Maude has an obsession with life. She wants to get the most out of it and seizes every opportunity that comes hurtling her way.
After meeting at complete stranger’s funeral, the pair start to hang out. As you might expect, Maude has a bucket load of crazy old lady wisdom to impart to Harold. They go on picnics to the dump, replant trees that have been imprisoned in the city, get into trouble with the law and eventually fall in love. Awww how romantic!
While this is going on, Harold’s overbearing (but hilarious and very FASHION) mother decides that her son needs to settle down and get married. She begins interviewing prospective brides, all of whom fall victim to a Harold suicide attempt.
As Harold and Maude’s relationship deepens (yes, there is the sex), there is an expected backlash from his mother, uncle and psychiatrist, all of whom tell him he’s sick.
With a perfectly mellow soundtrack by Cat Stevens, the film has a very chilled vibe which makes it  ideal for a lazy Sunday watch. With many a hilarious line, it could be likened to romantic comedy but is far more than that, the humour being dark and subtle and the story heart-warming but not too sappy.