HAROLD AND MAUDE

US, 1971, 92 minutes, Colour.
Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack.
Directed by Hal Ashby.

It depends on how far out you like your comedy! For fans of eccentric farce, this is a very funny black comedy, weakened a little at the end by an unresolved compromise in the characterisation of Maude. Audiences will enjoy the romance between a 20-year-old lad with suicidal yearnings and an 80-year-old ultra-spontaneous lady who meet at funerals as straight comedy. But there is plenty of message underlying the characterisations as well as the settings and even the decor: about life, death, age, youth, freedom, nature and artificiality. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon are excellently convincing comedians. Vivian Pickles as Harold's impossible mother is marvellously exasperating.

1. This film received great critical comment. Does it deserve it? How successful a comedy was it? Why? What particular facets appeal to you most? Why?

2. The film seemed to be a zany message comedy. What was the basic message of the film? Where was this best illustrated? The use of Cat Stevens' songs and lyrics?

3. The film was clearly a satire. How effective as satire was it? what were the targets of the satire? Modern societies and personalities? Modern preoccupations with life and death?

4. The film was also farcical. How successful was the farce element of the film? Is this where its expertise lay? Especially the suicide attempts, the exaggeration of the company of Harold and Maude, the dialogue? The film is obviously 'black' comedy. What is the value of 'black' comedy and playing humorously and satirically with serious themes of life and death? (Did the film remain within the bounds of good taste?)

5. How did the film explore themes of death and life, man and woman, old and young, nature and artifice, urban life and rural life? Were these the major themes of the film? Develop the implications of their treatment in the film.

6. The film played very much with reality and appearances. Where did truth emerge in the reality or in the appearance? What did the film have to say about truth and life?

7. The film obviously attacked the pretensions of modern society. It attacked the conventions of modern behaviour. How did it extol what is ordinary and plain? Was it successful in its attack on pretensions?

8. How interesting a character was Harold? Was he a character or a caricature? A kind of rich Cinderella-figure? The initial, impact of his suicide attempts? The reasons for these, the reasons for his attending funerals, his friendship with Maude? What did he want from his mother in terms of love and emotion? His treatment of the potential fiancees? What did he learn by his experience with, and love for, Maude? How liberated was he at the end?

9. How enjoyable a character was Maude? As a kind of 'fairy godmother'? The enjoyment of her eccentricity? An old person being more liberated than a young person? What values did she stand for? How strong a character was she, in deciding her death? What had she achieved during her life?

1O.Did the film have any insight into the nature of love? How real was the love of Harold and Maude? How much was it need and companionship?

11.How much of a caricature was Harold's mother? How ogreish was she? (As a contrast between the 'Cinderella figure' and the ‘Fairy godmother'?) How amusing was her performance? How horrifying was she?

12.The humour of the computer-dating? The suicide attempts, even Harold being outacted? What comment was made on society and its conventions here?

13.The incidental humour about the army and death? The satirical point in this sequence?

14.How moved were you by Maude's death? What was the impact on Harold? Did it break through his pretence and his preoccupation with death? Was he free, and could he return to life? Had Maude given her life for him?

15.How significant as social comment was this film? How well does it show the possibility of comedy and satire in giving insight into society?