Knowing how to live or knowing how to die are virtues, difficult and debatable themes that a film almost never has the courage to address.
Harold is a young man, just arrived at adulthood, who has a morbid fascination with death: he drives hearses, goes to funerals for “fun”, rehearses his own suicide a thousand and one times. He will change under the influence of an elderly woman, whose desire to live every moment to the fullest leads her to very incorrect attitudes, such as “borrowing” other people's things without even bothering to ask for them. In a way, both have to learn from each other, and the film shows us this mutual learning process, and the special bond that is created between them.
Black comedies are never consensual, as you know, but this one is especially touching and charged with a positive spirit. The film tackles difficult, even hard themes, with a certain spirit of informality and lightness that, however, does not reduce or diminish them: what it means to die, how to live, how to enjoy life or know how to die with dignity, how to educate and understand a child, anyway. For this reason, and due to the dark comic load, it is not an easy film and will displease certain people either because of its humor or because of the themes it addresses.
The film has good production values, but still feels very cheap. The film is set in the US, but it's so inherently British that we forget about it and assume it's all set in some rural English corner. We have tasteful cinematography, low contrast and good lighting, we have good sets and costumes. I would particularly highlight the houses of Harold and Maude, because they couldn't be more different and, at the same time, more characterizing their personalities: an old-fashioned mansion turned to the past and a pleasant little house with cozy details. There's nothing very flashy, technically, and the only negative call to attention goes to the soundtrack, strident and overly flashy.
I couldn't close this text without praising the impeccable work of Bud Cort, an actor I've never seen before and who doesn't seem to have made much of a career in cinema, and the inspired performance of his counterpart, Ruth Gordon, a high-level veteran who played a huge variety of roles over the next few years.
