I always assume that everyone has seen the classic cult film Harold and Maude, featuring iconic performances by Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort and a fabulous soundtrack by the young Cat Stevens. But when I mention the film now to my students, often no one in the room has even heard of the movie, let alone watched it. It is a unique and unparalleled love story that is very much of its time and place (California at the start of the 70s—Vietnam, ecology, weed, all manner of cultural and social revolution) but is very much needed in our moment for its peerless humor and probing humanity. It's possible to stream the film on many platforms, and this YouTube clip offers a rich taste of the indelible and haunting experience of the world of H & M. I try to watch it at least once a year.
Lisa Russ Spaar is the author of fourteen books, most recently Madrigalia: New & Selected Poems and a novel, Paradise Close. Her honours include a Rona Jaffe Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Library of Virginia Prize for Poetry, and Carol Weinstein Prize. She is Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
Read Lisa Russ Spaar's poetry in Issue 296 (Summer Poetry 2023)
