Andover Film Club

Monday 5th September,  Reel Cinema, Andover   Start time: 8:00 pm 

We have a special evening planned to launch the new season.

Love At First Sight - with introduction and Q&A by the film's screen-writer

A new, award winning short film, intoduced by it's screen-writer, Andover based Julian Unthank.

followed by...

Harold And Maude

The cult comedy from 1971.

Introduction Given On The Night, By Mark Grainger 

Harold & Maude was made in 1971. At the time of it’s release it was not a box office success, but soon gained a cult following and has now been included in the American Classic film list for the period.

So who made the film and who are the main players ?

The film was directed by Hal Ashby who was born in 1929 of Mormon parents in Utah he had a troubled early life, moving to California in 1948, where almost by accident he landed a job in the printing press department of United Studios. Early on in his career he worked as assistant editor & then as editor with Norman Jewison. As editor he won an Oscar for “Best Film Editing” for the acclaimed film In the Heat of the Night. . Itching to become a director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy to work on called The Landlord (1970). It became Ashby's first film as a director. From there he delivered a series of well-acted, intelligent human scaled dramas that included The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), Coming Home (1978) and Being There (1979). Great reviews and Oscar nominations became common on Ashby films. Harold & Maude was his second film as director.

The film was written and produced by Colin Higgins who wrote a story for his Masters thesis in film studies at UCLA. This story was then expanded to the form the script for Harold & Maude which combines Higgins' two favourite movie elements, slapstick comedy and sudden death and was his debut as a producer. The film was a box-office failure but an almost instantaneous cult success. Five years later, Higgins scored his first tangible movie hit, Silver Streak (1975), which characteristically used a suspense-film plotline upon which to mount several first-rate comic sequences. The same formula was applied to Higgins' next film which was also successful financially, Foul Play (1978). Higgins' dark streak was never more pronounced than in the feminist comedy Nine to Five (1980), which became Higgins' most successful film yet. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. from the Broadway hit followed in 1982 but was a disaster as a movie. Higgins died of Aids aged 47.

It isn’t often that are introductions include someone who was born in the 19th Century, started acting in silent films at the beginning of WW1 and was still making headlines in the 1970’s. In 1953 there was a film produced called The Actress, which starred among others Spencer Tracy, Anthony Perkins and Jean Simmons. It won several awards and was nominated for an Oscar. Jean Simmons was playing the role of Ruth Gordon Jones and the film was written by and was the true life story of Ruth Gordon who plays the lead in tonight’s film. She was born in 1896 and died in 1985 having had a very long and fulfilling career in the film and drama industry. Her earliest credit as an actress was in 1915, as a writer in 1945 c(for Over 21), and she has 1 credit for soundtrack dating to 1980. She won an Oscar for her role in Rosemary’s Baby in 1968 as well as 6 other awards and 14 nominations during her long career. After a few initial roles in films she spent the next 20 years or so on the stage, returning to films in the 1940’s with roles such as Mary Todd in Spirit of the People (1940). She then moved back to stage & writing and it was only during the 1960’s that she attained film stardom with her role as Maude in tonight’s film also gaining her a nomination for a Golden Globe. She was one of the “Greats” of 20th century cinema.

Bud Cort, who plays Harold has also had a long career in the cinema, with his first credit in a TV role dating back to 1963. His break came when Robert Altman gave him a bit part as private Boon in M.A.S.H which led immediately to playing the lead in Brewster McCloud. For his role in tonight’s’ film he won the French Crystal Star as well as being nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. He is still active with a total of 75 credits as an actor, as well as a few for writer, director and soundtrack. His most recent roles have mainly been in US TV including in Ugly Betty which some of you may have seen.

So what about the film. ? It is certainly not conventional comedy. It touches issues that some may find distasteful or even taboo, but for all that, in my view worth airing. When I first saw this film soon after it was released, I was laughing out loud. Some of the audience were leaving the cinema. Harold plays a spoilt rich brat with a fixation about death. Maude is a poor elderly lady who goes to a lot of funerals because there will be free food. The meeting of the two is inevitable. The relationship between them is not neither is the conclusion. There is even a bit for the “petrol-heads” among you, but again with a twist and again with an unpredictable conclusion. I’m really looking forward to a re-run on the big screen.

I hope you’ll join me.