Harold and Maude is a movie directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. The film, featuring light humor, dark humor, and existentialist drama, centers around the exploits of a morbid young man -- Harold -- who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes him as he falls in love with septuagenarian Maude.

The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time[1], number 42 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies and on IMDB's list of the best 250 movies ever made. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress [2]. It is particularly noteworthy as having an enormous and zealous cult following.

The film was a commercial failure when it was released although the critical reception was extremely positive. The screenplay upon which the film was based was written by Colin Higgins, and published as a novel[3] in 1971. The movie was shot in the San Francisco Bay Area. Harold and Maude was also a play on Broadway for some time.

The movie has given rise to two new words: "Harolding" (hanging around cemeteries) described by Douglas Coupland in "Harolding in West Vancouver" (1996); and "Maudism" or "Maudianism", the philosophy of living each day to the fullest.[4]. This may also have a link to the phonetically-identical philosophy of Modism.

The entire soundtrack for the movie is by Cat Stevens.

I fell in love with that movie when we watched it in high school.

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