Finally I managed to implement a plugin for the latest comments on the sidebar – I don’t particularily like it so far, but I find it useful enough and maybe I’ll work on it later.
Harold and Maude
As I have already announced, I could not simply put Harold and Maude into the stream of rather annoying backlog postings I had to write, but now I have this feeling that words cannot express how great this movie is. Outstandingly good humour, really extraordinary characters and especially the most unusual relationship I have ever seen leaves me with no words to explain the greatness of Harold and Maude.
My favourite part was the seppuku scene, I think. Closely followed by the comment of the psychologist (“But you want to sleep with your grandmother”) and the monologue of the priest who talks about “withered flesh” and finishes in an absolutely hilarious way with “It makes me want to… vomit.” Ahahaha! I laughed several times while watching it. This movie made me realize again how much I love dark humour, although at the same time, I find the movie rather optimistic: Despite all those suicide scenes, the movie propagates the beauty of nature, of small things in life and is full of enjoyable activities behind the eyes of society.
I love the aspect of hanging around cemetries, by the way. Paris not only made me a museum person, it also made me a cemetry person. I love walking through them, especially because they are even greater when the sky is actually dark and grey. I walked alone through the Père Lachaise with a black umbrella when it rained cats and dogs: The atmosphere was so intense and beautiful, aah. I don’t feel solemn or start to think about death or dead people though, I just enjoy cemetries.
If I may talk about another side note: I am a vivid follower of Harold’s clothing style, these jackets are so stylish, even though they might not be the manliest. It seems like I really like the 70s style. And now that I’m about to finish this blog post, I started Wikipedi-ing with this site and of course the Wikipedia article on the history of western fashion. The 19th century is so interesting already! It makes me wonder if the ladies (and few gentlemen) of the Gothic Lolita scene are actually aware of the complexity of the history of fashion.
Waah, I’m so happy you liked it this much. *__* It’s one of my absolute favorite movies and of course I agree with the points you mentioned. My most beloved scenes are others though – I especially adored Harold’s first suicide attempt and the first scene in Maude’s trailer and the one with Harold’s army uncle and of course the end with Harold playing the banjo and and and… XD
And oh yeah, funerals have a special atmosphere about them and I guess I kind of like that atmosphere too, but it’s more a love-hate relationship, because they have an extremely depressing effect on me – they make me think of myself dying in a negative and sad way. I surely don’t want a traditional funeral for myself.
Cemetries on the contrary are beautiful and not really depressing for me. A gravestone makes somebody a bit immortal and that’s a relief. *g*
Of course there are many hilarious in Harold and Maude – it makes me want to watch it again. At the same time, it’s such a unique movie. I guess, there really is nothing comparable to it. (Which is rather sad, because I’d love to see something similar to this.)
Argh, I lost a part of this entry! Grmbl, oh well…
Cemetries are maybe the most interesting places for me. Since I have come to Paris, I not only became a museum person, I also enjoy going to cemetries. Actually I don’t find them depressing at all, because I don’t start to think about death or something like that when I go to them, I just love their atmosphere. It was mostly clear when last autumn, I went to the Père Lachaise alone in the rain: The atmosphere was so dark and intense, that was really beautiful in a rather unusual way, I guess.
I have never been to a funeral though. I whole-heartedly hate them because I believe that they are mostly full of hypocrisies. When we were at the Crematorium at the Père Lachaise last year, we saw some obviously rich people with huge families, and they were all crying in such a ridiculous way, ugh. When I am dead, I hope I will not have a funeral either, I actually have grown fond of the idea of being buried under a tree in the middle of nowhere. (Like my very first turtle, by the way!) I personally also dislike gravestones. Also, it’s annoying to see how many great men and women stand with shamefully small gravestones in between of other huge graves.
But I guess we are slightly too young to talk about death anyways. I hope that even when I grow older, this will not be too big of an issue for me.