Harold and Maude

[debbiej]

I swear this is the best movie of all time. Has anybody ever seen it? I'd love to talk about it.

You'll never forget the first time you see this movie but you have to watch it over and over again to discover all the levels. Its quirky, its funny, its beautiful, its deep. I showed it to a good friend of mine and warned him that it was a little strange but he needed to pay attention. At one point Maude makes an observation and my friend literally threw his arms back and said "WOW".

(As I'm writing this I'm remembering a scene and finding yet another parallel meaning that I hadn't noticed before)

I want to be Maude. One very neat lady.

Debbie

[Doc]

Yeah, I've seen that movie over and over. It is indeed one of the best of all time.

I sign a lot of sympathy cards and really wish they just had a big sunflower on the front and, "That is wonderful. Now go out and love some more," printed inside instead of the marshmallow creme.

[debbiej]

"That is wonderful. Now go out and love some more,"

Yes!! That's one of many "jaw dropping" moments in that movie. Out of the depths of despair, Harold hears these words - you wonder if he's heard them and understands what she means. And you don't know until the final scene.

I want everyone to watch this movie!!!  It is cinemagraphic story telling at its finest.

Debbie

[Doc]

I think that's pretty much the defining line in the film.

Harold and the rest of us all fall in love with Maude because she is utterly free and whole. Maude is free and whole because she loves without fear or hesitation, vigorously and zestily. Witness how she expresses her love of a tree, making no consession to consequences. An ultimate consequence of love is loss and the fear of this pain is the reason most people do not love as Maude does and cannot be free. To be free one must accept loss, accept that the loss of a loved thing does not make one less whole or less able to go out and love some more. When you can absorb that and live in that truth, you can destroy your cute Jaguar hearse (and other attempts at 'self-expression' that are really about controlling how people react to you) and take up the banjo (an excellent symbol for Maude-like personal freedom, it's a lot of fun, but no matter how good you are people will laugh at your banjo-playing.)   

[debbiej]

Great point.  I am thinking of the coin that Harold gives her and she tosses it into the water, "So, I'll always know where it is". She didn't need to process it and what was really important to her was not the object but the sentiment.

I'm also thinking about all the "stuff" she had in her home. As I think about what I can remember of the items, and what she shared with Harold, they were all things that she could share. Things that she could use to expand other people's experiences. i.e. the smell of a winter day in the park - the banjo, etc. And of course she shared those things as an expression of love.

Thanks for the responses, Doc!!

Debbie

[Doc]

I'm pretty sure that wasn't a coin, but an engagement ring. He was trying to propose and she wholeheartedly accepted his love but transformed the tie-down-and-define-it aspects of an 'engagement' into something more open, free and pure.

Yeah, I love her place. Isn't it a caboose? When I was a kid my mom had a friend who lived in a caboose. What strikes me about her stuff is that it's stuff to experience, not stuff to have. Like her complicated smell-o-tron machine thing, wonderful and ephemeral.

[debbiej]

It was probably more like a medallion. He made it on one of those machines that you can stamp letters in metal. He made it while they were at the carnival while she was playing a game with a group of people. I think it said, "I love Maude" on it.

One scene I am unclear on is when he shows up at the sculptors studio. She does have some interesting things to say but the scene seemed somewhat out of place. Maybe I missed reference earlier in the film that led up to that scene? Any thoughts?

Debbie

[Doc]

I don't remember any of the dialogue from the sculptor's studio at all. Though now I do remember the penny-press medallion was not a ring. It's been a good long while since I watched that movie over and over. I suppose I should get it again.

C'mon, you other people. A tale of a wild and inapproriate love, you can't resist.