Harold and Maude 4K 1971 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Harold is the son of Mrs. Chazen, a wealthy woman who pays him no attention. Suffering from depression and a lack of friends, he stages carefully planned but ridiculous suicide attempts that fail to make any impression on his distracted mother. Fascinated by death and all its trappings, Harold drives around the cemeteries near town in an old hearse. At two funerals in a row, he meets Maude, a 79-year-old woman who survived a concentration camp and is as fascinated by life as Harold is by death. Free-spirited, she is the polar opposite of the solemn and self-important Harold. Nevertheless, they become best friends, and she instills in him a desire to live, to spread his wings, and to enjoy his brief time on Earth. As time goes by, they go on several funny and wild adventures together, and their friendship blossoms into love—much to the dismay of Harold’s mother.

Review 4K Movie

When it comes to the movie *Harold and Maude*, audiences always seem to split into two camps. Some are charmed by the lighthearted and touching relationship between the characters, set against a backdrop of profound and vital questions about life, death, the universe, and all that. Others, however, see it merely as a provocative story of a non-traditional relationship between a spoiled resident of a bourgeois bubble and a Komsomol member whose behavior is deliberately provocative. But this is a magnificent film—in fact, much like *Fight Club*, though that one is bolder and more aggressive; this film, on the other hand, has a slightly different way of spurring the audience to action.

Perhaps I’m wrong to call the film provocative and defiant, because if you think about it, in the first half of the movie, the antics of the protagonists—Harold and Maude—fit perfectly with the description of the pranks of petty troublemakers, sweet little kids who, out of naivety, are playing with matches in a haystack. But when people of different ages, eras, views, social statuses, and genders merge in the agony of passion, even the most devout Catholic will involuntarily feel a gag reflex at the mere thought of an old maid’s sagging breasts. Well, if Catholics are outraged, what can be said about hypocrites and other guardians of morality who view such a union, at best, with a scowl and a disapproving spit at the screen (a situation that actually took place)—and, incidentally, one can understand them.

But this is more than just a movie about the relationship between two people. It’s a genuine challenge to the system, routine, and platitudes—to the constraints and prohibitions imposed by society. The film quite delicately, without pressure or a frayed nerve, penetrates to the very place where rules and the system shape human character—hidden behind false etiquette and feigned virtue—and just as skillfully sets it free. The protagonist, Harold, having been born at the epicenter of a hypocritical world—in high bourgeois society—almost intuitively recognizes its feigned chastity, and suffers as a result. This explains his alienation, his perpetual tendency toward misanthropy, and his obsession with destruction and death. Harold senses the world’s hypocritical underbelly, but he is unable to explain it logically or, consequently, find a way to resolve it. This is where Maud enters the picture—an independent, uninhibited, energetic (literally Tyler Durden in a skirt) elderly lady who smiles in the face of death (judging by her tattoo, an Auschwitz survivor), and who, because of this, knows how to appreciate life. It falls to her to provide the moral and ethical guidance for the still-unformed Harold, helping him develop into a sincere, free, and independent individual.

What I particularly appreciate about this film is that the director deliberately refrains from resorting to sensationalism, no matter how slippery and sensitive the subject matter may be. The film doesn’t shock or stir up a scandal; instead, it takes a very gentle approach, in the style of a strictly wholesome indie film, whose main strength is nothing other than a human touch, a love of life, and optimism. Yet even here, the film avoids extremes, never crossing the line into naive frivolity or sentimental maudlinism. That fine line—the boundary between a poet’s lyrical self-absorption and strict rhetorical precision—is, in this context, honed to a filigree-like refinement, where there are not only the characters and their problems, but also a lavish, extremely concise, yet at the same time scathing satire of the military, religion, authority, and other structures of regulation and totalitarian interference in human life. And, I’ll say it again, all of this is delivered with a lively dose of irony, a gram of sarcasm, and half a portion of good-natured cynicism, which, for all its darkness, comes across as white (and fluffy).

“Harold and Maude” is not a trivial film. Movies of this sort generally either become favorites for home viewing among a narrow circle of fans or are ignored and discredited in every possible way as examples of bad taste and all manner of pornography—there are no other options here. In fact, it is precisely this division between fans and opponents that grants the film a certain immunity, ensuring its timeless presence on screens around the world—at least until moral laws become so entrenched that it becomes possible to transcend them. But as long as the film’s provocation retains its will and power over the minds of a self-righteous society, this creation is doomed to live among us.