Harold and Maude

It's the oddest of odd couples in Hal Ashby's idiosyncratic, free-flowing comedy-drama Harold and Maude.

Voted 45th funniest film of all time and the 9th best romantic-comedy of all time by the American Film Institute, with a brilliant soundtrack by Cat Stevens and a robust 1970s tone of rebellion and black humour - Harold and Maude has earnt its right as an American classic.

They were meant to be. But exactly what they were meant to be is not quite clear. Harold (Bud Cort - see below) is a needy teen with a unique outlook. He's preoccupied with death, suicide and the macabre, much to his mother's dismay (Harold stages eight fake suicides in the film). Rejecting the friends and potential spouse which his mother deems appropriate, Harold finds his own fun in Maude (Ruth Gordon), a 79 and-three-quarters-year-old hippy. Brought together by their joint interest in the funerals of strangers, the pair becomes fast friends. What ensues is a relationship of the most unorthodox variety.

Less