harold and maude, zach pedroncelli

Harold and Maude was interesting to say the least. The opening scene baffled me when the young man hangs himself and the mother seemingly disregards the act and leaves the son there. At that moment I wondered what this movie was and why on earth we were assigned this film. Then the movie continues and I realized it was based off some crude sense of humor that this boy bestowed. The film continues with this attempt to gain attention form a disturbed quest to falsely commit suicide. The later parts of this film begin to make sense and revolve around the idea that everyone has someone out there like them. Even if those people maybe have strange ideas of what it is they strive to do or enjoy. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and others cringe such as in the scene of the boy waking up in bed with the old woman. Overall the film had a unique sense of humor and overall turned into a very intriguing and complete plot. The sense of connection that the main characters react brings many ideas to mind. Some of those being the director’s intention and what it is the message truly is. I believe that the humor was more an indicator of freedom and the enjoyment in the scenes only takes place when the boy and woman are together otherwise his emotions portray depression. Overall I enjoyed the film and had an interesting story to follow. 

Did That Just Happen?!!? Harold, Maude, and Mortality.

Harold and Maude, have you heard of differently funny much?  This metaphor filled adventure plays on the society of how people interact and view life.  This is certainly a character driven film.  Most of the humor itself comes from the characters and lack of knowledge of the way the characters view life.  I was unsure how to react at the start of the movie and this is what causes the situational humor is due to the audiences lack of knowledge of the characters.   I was truly freaking out as he jumped off and the lady that turned out to be his mother was completely ignoring him.  I literally yelled “go help him, he could still make it!!”  Then as I saw his smile I started to see the development of the character and the evolution of the movie.

The way the characters Harold and Maude interact in society and with each other is a very unique and unlike normal reactions between people.  The way in which Maude has a habit of stealing cars seems funny to me that an old woman would be up to that type of mischief.  Or after I believe the second funeral in which she notices Harold, he gets in the car with her and as she just seems to be having a joyride of her life and having fun driving recklessly, she asks if Harold had ever driven in a Hearst.  I got quite a laugh out of that simply because he replies yes, I actually drive one, this one to be specific and I found that very funny.  The type of humor in this movie is very unlike most comedy films that puts laugh out loud in your face type of humor.  I believe this is why I enjoyed this movie so much, is that it takes a different approach to humor, and it is unlike most.  Instead of using a laugh track or having someone in the film actually laughing at something, it uses witty humor and lets you discover it yourself in each situation.  The metaphors of life and death and how society views them or interacts with the ideas of each create a very enjoyable film that one with an open mind will find truly enjoyable and able to get a good laugh.  

Harold and... Maude?

I think I've started off every one of my blogs stating how different each one of the films has been. But my goodness. So far, this one takes the cake. I tried to grasp the meaning of the film, but was left absolutely and utterly confused. And, not to step on the instructors authority, I have no idea what this film has to do with anything we have discussed thus far in class. I would hardly call it a comedy. In fact, I would most definitely not call it a comedy. If anything, it was a drama, with maybe one or two relief jokes spread thin throughout the entirety of the film. I'm not saying it was a bad film, per say. It just really threw me a curveball. There was definitely an ever present theme existent.
Death. Or rather, the fear of death. Now I know I discussed fears in my last post about Young Frankenstein (because I know EVERYONE read that...), but the fear of death is extremely prevalent in Harold and Maude. And everyone deals with some sort of this problem. First, we start with Harold's mother. We know she is terrified of death because of her reaction towards Harold's "attempts" at suicide. She always brushes it off, telling her son to stop messing around. She never shows real concern, or confronts the problem directly. This is because to do so, she would have to face death. And let's be honest, she must be too good for death, or so she thinks. She even goes as far as to buy Harold a brand new Jaguar, in hopes that he will use it to replace the hearse that he adores so much.
We also see a fear of death with some of the "online dates" suited for Harold. The first girl nearly has a heart attack when she see's who she thinks is Harold set himself on fire in the courtyard. And, or course, this is completely understandable. I would hardly be able to compose myself if I witnessed someone burn to death. The second leaves pretty much on the same basis, when Harold removes his own hand with a cleaver. Again, understandable. The last suitor is the only one that seems to tolerate death. But even as she plays along with Harold, she doesn't really accept death because the whole scene is a charade.
Harold, the one who seems to accept death the most, is probably the character most afraid of it. I say this because throughout the whole film, he seems to pretend to commit suicide for attention. Like Mr. Serio said in class last week, if someone truly wants to kill themselves, they do it. They don't seek help. They don't look for someone to talk them out of it. They just do it. And Harold never really does it. As fascinated as he is with death, he never seems to conquer it. He always looks for reasons to live. Which, I guess, is what Maude was trying to teach him. Life is worth living, if you can find what makes you happy.
And that brings me to the last character, Maude. I will admit, it is unfair of me to say that everyone in the film fears death because out of everyone, Maude is the only person who doesn't. She is the only one who actually dies. She is the only one who conquers the fear of death, which is ironic because she lives everyday in the manner that she wants. She found what makes her happy, and lives to enjoy it. I think she knows the sorrow of death, because she is (or was) a Holocaust survivor. Being constantly surrounded by death must have resulted in acceptance, and courage even. And because of this, Maude, the crazy old lady, was the only character with no fear of death.

Not Oedipus Complex- Just Two People Enjoying Life

This film is not funny in the way that most of the other movies we have seen in class were funny. Sure, there were some situations that could be funny, such as when Maude escapes the cop, but I found them to be a statement of Maude’s character rather than an attempt at situational humor.

Maude’s character is the character that was the most complex in this film. She is so full of life that she can be mistaken for a cute, eccentric old lady in the beginning. However, she is not a perfectly happy character. She alludes to past problems, such as being beaten by thugs for protesting for her rights. She lives for the moment, not forgetting her past. Her very identity is being unique and living- not wasting time on trivial things or getting caught up in all the drama of everyday life. She is influenced by the senses- smell, touch, hearing, seeing, tasting, etc. She has an olfactory machine in order to smell different scents of the “real world” such as snow, not the perfume-like odors.  She acts as a model and hangs paintings of herself in order to connect with sight. She plays piano to hear the music, and makes Harold sing in order to hear his voice. She has the wooden carving that she uses for its tactile properties. She drinks and eats a variety of things that she likes in order to connect with the taste of the world. She is surrounded by these senses in her home in order to feel connected with the world around her, to escape a cage.

Harold’s character is very interesting and tough to decipher. At first, he seemed to “commit suicide” in order to get his mother’s attention. This may be part of his identity- his mother never seems to care about him or ask him about himself. However, I think he just does not have anything that he deems worthy to live for. He does not seem to find happiness in anything at all. When he meets Maude, he finally finds a purpose to life. She lives all the time, each day. He learns to see life from her eyes. He does not have to worry about what his mother thinks or what is proper. He learns how to break out of his cage when he’s around Maude. I think that while growing up in the house with his mother, Harold has to follow certain rules. He tries to break free of these rules by committing acts that his mother does not approve of, unhealthy acts. Maude teaches him how to rebel in life, but how to do so with humor and vivacity.

This is not an Oedipus complex. Harold does not fall in love with Maude because he is attracted to his mother, or his grandmother. He likes her vivacity and sass. He falls in love with her spirit- her willingness to live life the way she wants to. She, likewise, does not fall in love with him at all, I believe. She plans on dying soon and wants to do something special. She likes all of his attentions, sure, but I believe she truly wants to help him, to save him from his depression. She is protesting for the last time by not allowing him to succumb to death, but rather to rejoice in life. This is the last gift she can give to the world, and she chooses to bring joy and happiness to a misguided young man, Harold.

LIFE and DEATH

At first glance this movie was not what I expected. Like all of the other comedies we have seen jokes were “in your face jokes.” This was not Harold and Maude’s style. The beginning of the movie took me for a turn. The start of the movie played on the audience’s ignorance of the character Harold. We start of not seeing Harold’s face. I feel this was a very important element. This element gives us no way of judging that he was a kid, or a nerd, or obsessed with death. The first time we see his face is when it was lite by the match. The fire of the match is symbolic of something that humans cannot control and creates a parallel affect with the symbol of death. Harold likes the fire because it is mysterious and comforting at the same time. He gets the same affect with death.

Now Harold’s mother is an interesting character for many reasons. The first thing I want to mention is that I don’t blame her for the way she acts. She was probably raised in a rich environment. The environment has a tendency to lead to a snotty attitude. I also want to state that I think she wants what’s best for her son or at least what she thinks is best.  When she was filling out Harold’s personality form she would ask him for an answer but give the answer everyone wanted to hear. This is very reflective of society. For example, when you walk around campus and you see someone you know. What happens? You say Hey, how are you? 99% of the time you will hear back “Good, how are you.” Society has trained us to be fine and dandy all the time, even when there are serious problems in our life. Harold, in my opinion, has found out that little problem and in his own way rebelled from it.

Now this is where Maude comes in. She is like Harold in the fact that she, in her on way, has rebelled against society. She loves life all around her and plays on the fact that people hold on to their own little world. For example she loves to steal people cars. This is a bad habit to have kids so don’t do it. I believe the only she can get away with it is because she does not steal the cars for profit. She only use the vehicles to achieve an objective.

The last couple of things I want to mention are the metaphors in this film. The movie was filled with them to the brim. The first is in the beginning of the movie when Harold’s mother is swimming by drowned Harold. She did not know or even care what he was up too. This was a metaphor for the way people move past Harold without really noticing him. The second is Harold and Maude themselves. I feel each one represents life and death and how they are so different but in some way comingle. 

But One Life to Give

Embedded in a time when the Vietnam War was ongoing, Harold & Maude plays out Harold's adolescence on the verge of adulthood against the backdrop of the United States coming to terms with two failed wars.  His mother pushes him into being a man by looking for his dates so that he can be married and fulfill her view of what adulthood means.  She is bound up in forcing him into being what she wants and not what he, and by extension, the United States, wants to become.

In Greek myth, Calliope is one of the muses, in particular the muse of poetry. By the time Maude and Harold are at an amusement park, enjoying the mid-way rides, it should be clear that she is Harold's Calliope with calliope music in the background. She has shown him wonderful contraptions and art that hint at how wonderful the world can be if he embraces it and choses what he wants to do rather than accepting the choices of others.

Uncle Victor is representing an older view, wishing that the Germans could be setup again for a "good war" because the more recent wars "...have been a national disgrace." An older view that needs to pass away so that the younger generation can move on. For one moment, Maude is linked to the older world of Uncle Victor when Harold notices a numbered tattoo on Maude's arm.  The tattoo, put there by Germans during World War II, is another representation of something old that should be allowed to pass away and be left behind.

Victor's focus on Nathan Hale links Harold's theatrical fake deaths to Hale's famous quote, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." Maude is pulling Harold away from his dramatic death scenes to show him that there is much more to life than the dramatic and shrill deaths he enacts.  You can see that Harold is already taking this message to heart before Maude passes away when, instead of faking his death with his second date, he cuts off his fake arm, like an animal biting off a leg to escape a trap.

And of course, there is the issue of Maude's age. When I watch Ruth Gordon's performance, I can see a younger person who is inside her aging body.  If taken as a tale about the adolescence of the United States, it is a good lesson about avoiding the obsession of youth in our culture and enjoying the good parts of age as much as the young. The last words of dialogue spoken in the movie are between Harold and Maude, "I love you" says Harold, and Maude responds "Oh, Harold, that is wonderful. Go and love some more."

I hadn't connected an influence of Wes Anderson's work with Hal Ashby.  The visual style and pace of story telling are very similar between Ashby and Anderson's work.

David Duneman

Expository Writing

Joe Serio

4/7/13

Harold and Maude

            I can not really say I liked this movie very much, because I really did not, but there were aspects or themes that are note-worthy throughout the film. I just do not buy the whole premise of a young boy like Harold falling in love with an eighty year old woman like Maude. I believe that that kind of time gap between two people can only be sewn with money or fame and fortune. This film addresses the topic of a couple where one of them is quite significantly older than the other, but takes it to the highest extreme. This is a known topic in the news and what not. We all hear about the Hollywood couples where the dude is like eighty years old and he is dating a smoking hot twenty year old, which always raises questions like “What the hell do they have in common?” or “How could that not just be about money?” They probably made it how they did with a purpose. They probably wanted to parody those kinds of relationships, so they switched it around to where the woman was eighty years old and the boy was the younger of the two.

            I also liked the theme of Harolds’ suicidal thoughts and outcries. The first time he faked his death, at the beginning of the film, I thought he was really dead and did not want to watch anymore, but that scene served as a good tension builder and reliever into his whole theme of theatrical suicidal skits. How his mom always assumes that it is not a real suicide serves as the humor in the situation, she must have had a hell of a time figuring out that every time it is just a skit. This reminds me of the Don’t Cry Wolf story. Every time Harold pretends to commit suicide it is like he is crying wolf to his mother, sure he probably had her scared shitless the first few times but she caught on and now does not believe it, and even if he really did commit suicide she would not believe him. This theme in the film is just an aspect to make light of a dark reality.

            One of my favorite parts was the scene where Harold and Maude are shown naked in bed, as if to have just had sex, and Harold, instead of the doing the cliché smoking a cigarette, is blowing bubbles which is kind of a similar motion of breathing in and out.

            This was not a very good movie and probably not one ill watch again.

Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude is a terrific movie, probably one of the best of the semester so far.  I didn’t really find it too funny, besides the cop scene, but rather serious and tragic. I did provide me with much to think about though.

One thing I saw in this movie was a kind of forbidden love. In Western, and especially American culture, it is frowned upon to be in love with or marry someone who is very old, which we saw by the reactions of the priest, psychiatrist, uncle and mother. I connected this taboo with the rather outdated view on homosexuality, which has been all over the news lately. My thought was “love is love” as along as you love someone who cares if they are old, young, male, or female?

Next I saw a similarity to the Romeo and Juliet story, which was alluded to in the movie. One of the couple, Maude in this case, kills themself and their lover also decides to die. Harold did not physically die, but left his old self/personality in that wrecked car on the beach. We then see him playing the banjo as he strolls away, reborn.

I liked the idea that Maude presented; the sorrow in the world comes from unique individuals who allow them to be treated like just another person in the crowd. I would have to agree. Western culture has a kind of guideline for how one is to act. Most people follow this “guideline” and don’t really express themselves, if this is observed in life it causes sorrow. And once the people who strictly follow this “guideline” begin to die, they realize that they haven’t truly lived, causing even more sorrow.

I couldn’t help but think about the Boy who Cried Wolf during the suicide scenes. If his rough estimate was 15 suicides and his mother was used to these marvelous bits of acting, what would happen if he actually died, killed himself, or was murdered? His mother would just blow it off because she’d probably think it was just another one of his acts.

Another thought, was it just me or did Harold become less pale as the movie went on?

I think the cop scene was funny because it is something I think that we’d all like to do, but we don’t because we’re afraid of the consequences. Also the reaction of the cop is pretty good, just dumbfounded at Maude’s actions, and how she can be so nonchalant about what she has done.

I feel that Maude truly follows the philosophies of Carpe Diem and/or YOLO (as much as I hate that acronym). One needs to seize the day because you only live once, Maude does that and she dies happy rather than regretful.

I am really glad that this movie was on the list of this semester it is quickly becoming one of my favorite movies, the more and more I think about it. This comedy definitely leaves us with much to think about and much to talk about on Monday.   

Harold and Maude

            Just get pass the first twenty minutes and it is an enjoyable movie. The beginning and throughout the movie has dark humor. At first I did not know if I was suppose to laugh at some of the jokes about Harold’s attempts of suicide. His mother showed no interest in his actions and asks him, “I suppose you think that is very funny, Harold.” It felt uneasy to laugh until Maude entered the picture. Maude is an interesting character that lives every day as her last. Although, I still do not see why she killed herself. But when Maude came into the picture she seemed to brighten everything up. It was no longer a dark and uncomfortable but lively.

            As the mood lifted in the humor became enjoyable. It did not seem so dark as it was in the first twenty minutes. Harold’s mom setting him up on blind dates was probably my favorite scenes to watch. But even then laughing seemed rude and after I laughed I felt like it was wrong to laugh. The humor is completely different from previous movies we have viewed but it works.  If it had no humor at all, it would have been difficult to watch. I am surprised that I actually did enjoy the movie.

           

            

If you wanna have life, have life! If you wanna have death, have death!

The film Harold and Maude is a movie, like The Life of Brian, about the meaningless of life and death.  The main message that I took from this movie was the concept of hedonism, to live for pleasure because life is meaningless and death is just as meaningless.  “You can do what you want.  The opportunity's on and if you can find a new way, you can do it today.  You can make it all true and you can make it undo…If you wanna be me, be me!  If you wanna be you, be you!  'Cause there's a million things to be, you know that there are.”  Basically, do what you want because if you do not, you will regret it.

In the movie, I found that Harold represented death, or at least at the beginning of the film, and that Maude represented life.  I found evidence for this idea in that Harold seems to really enjoy death and, in contrast, Maude tells us over and over again that she likes to watch things grow.  Perhaps Harold’s growth in the movie is the reason Maude likes spending so much time with him.  That, and her love for trying new things.  This might also be the reason Harold is so attracted to Maude, although I’m not sure if you could really say Maude decays throughout the movie…  To take the theme further, Maude brought growth and, in turn, life to Harold.  However, Harold also indirectly brings Maude a desire to die, not in a melancholy manner but in one that is anxious to try something new (and excited to come back as a sunflower). 

There are a couple things that do not match up with my idea, though.  First, Maude, like Harold, goes to many funerals for enjoyment (as seen as she waves cheerily to the people with black umbrellas at the funeral).  Perhaps death intrigues her because it is something she has not tried.  Although, I’m sure she saw plenty enough death to put a bad taste in her mouth because of her history at a concentration camp.  Another problem with my theory is that it almost seems as though Harold cannot die, even though he tries so hard.  When he fakes his death for his last date, Sunshine the actress, he stabs himself with the same knife that kills Sunshine in one stab.  Obviously, in this situation the knife is not a fake, yet we can clearly see Harold stabbing himself in the stomach and the blood seeping through his white shirt.

I found it interesting that the main character, Harold, was not a hero at all.  People might say that his mom was the “bad guy” of the movie.  However, I saw Harold as the one in the wrong.  At first, we see Harold’s mom as controlling and heartless, but when we find out that her son continually tortures her through his fake suicides, we can see that she is not at all heartless.  She is a very loving and protective mother.  Harold, on the other hand, is very hateful toward her and even sticks his tongue out at her when she cries after walking into a brutal suicide scene in the bathroom.  Because the audience is supposed to identify with Harold, we are forced to view her as the villain.