Harold and Maude

Harold, a depressed rich teenager obsessed with death - his favourite pastime is performing elaborate mock suicides - is liberated by his intimate friendship with Maude, an 80 year old holocaust survivor and funeral follower. A classic free spirit, Maude is the polar opposite of the gloomy Harold. Her passion for life despite the blows it has dealt her, eventually cures Harold of his teenage angst. Like Bob Rafelson, a director similarly obsessed with the trials and tribulations of the children of the rich, Ashby forever treads the thin line between whimsy and absurdity, ‘tough’ sentimentality and black comedy. A doggedly eccentric film, it garnered a cult following in the seventies that persists today. Cast includes Ruth Gordan, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles and Cyril Cusack.