Friday, April 25th 2025

Harold and Maude

Finding the right words to describe HAROLD AND MAUDE is no easy task. Subversive, romantic, provocative, heart-felt, humorous, devastating, charming, riotous—HAROLD AND MAUDE is all of these and more. Harold (Bud Cort), a young man obsessed with death, meets Maude (Ruth Gordon), an elderly woman obsessed with life. What follows is perhaps the strangest, yet most touching romance to ever light up the silver screen. Director Hal Ashby shows a remarkably deft hand with such unusual material, neither idealizing nor overdoing the sentimentality. Although the film initially left viewers puzzled, it eventually earned a dedicated cult following and now is routinely cited as one of greatest romantic comedies of all time.