His mother has decided he should marry and signs him up for a computer dating service, 70s-style. Their friendship develops over the course of the week, a busy one for Harold. That phenomenon may even translate into an afterlife for the artist who now calls himself Yusuf/Cat Stevens.‘Harold and Maude is the kind of cinema that draws you in for the storyline and keeps you there for the beating heart.’ Photograph: Paramount/Allstar Harold and Maude was to join that elite cluster of films that seem to possess an afterlife.
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In some communities, however, the film struck a chord, playing for over a year - an offbeat date movie with filmgoers singing the songs and quoting the lines. The results were inevitable: Most of the theaters were empty. Ultimately, when the release of The Godfather was unexpectedly delayed three months because of a famous re-edit, Harold and Maude was jammed into its Christmas playdates.
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Paramount could not decide how to sell it or even release it. The objective was to portray Maude as life-affirming, not maudlin.įrom today’s perspective, Harold and Maude represented a uniquely ’60s indulgence – a love story involving an 80-year-old woman and an 18-year-old boy. “His songs capture the happiness of being sad,” he explains, admittedly stealing the line from Victor Hugo.Īs he was shooting, Ashby kept a succession of Stevens’ songs playing in the background, as though encouraging the performances to embody their spirit. “This man will deliver the music.”Īs it turned out, Cat already had written several songs, which seemed oddly relevant including the exuberant “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” which formed a bookend for the movie and the album.
“The script has the words but it yearns for the music,” Ashby explained.
Ashby had heard his music in a bar, traced his whereabouts and shared the screenplay with him. The friend turned out to be a scraggly kid in torn jeans who looked like he hadn’t slept in months. One day he called to tell me, “I’d like to bring over a new friend.” “I love it but I’m struggling to find a point of view,” he said. Having come of age in remote New Caledonia, Higgins found himself baffled by Hollywood and its values – a confusion expressed in his hilarious script.Īshby, having just directed his first film, The Landlord, shared my affection for the screenplay but was reluctant to commit. The script had been written by a UCLA film student named Colin Higgins, who was supporting himself as a pool cleaner. I had just acquired the script of Harold and Maude for Paramount and sought to recruit Ashby to direct it. “Harold And Maude” Everettįull disclosure: I would never have met Cat Stevens had Hal Ashby not introduced me to him. “Where Do The Children Play?” asks one of his songs, and he seems determined to find out. Now a silver-haired, 73-year-old father of six, he lives in Dubai and has decided to venture back on the road. In the film, Maude (Ruth Gordon), the mentor, explains to a comically suicidal Harold (Bud Cort) that “consistency is not a human trait.”Īs a model of inconsistency, Cat’s lyrics over the years teetered between Buddhism, Taoism and total confusion. The movie, directed by Hal Ashby, focused on an aimless youth who unexpectedly finds a life mentor - one who suddenly abandons him. During the pandemic, Fishman reviewed the important voices of the 1970s, concluding: “I may not be the person I am today had I not been exposed to Cat and his music.” His songs ultimately “occupied a space between earnest innocence and earned wisdom,” wrote Fishman in the Washington Post.Ĭat’s link to Harold and Maude was fortuitous. Demographics Evolve, The Question Isn't Where Is Hollywood's Audience, But WhoĬan Cat now find re-acceptance? Howard Fishman, a noted composer-performer, votes yes.