Daily Dialogue — February 19, 2012

MED. SHOT — HAROLD

Harold sits attentively.

VOICE (o.s.): Psst!

Harold, startled, looks over his right shoulder and sees Maude kneeling in the pew behind him. She speaks with a slight British/European accent.

MAUDE: Like some licorice?

She offers some.

HAROLD: Eh, no. Thank you.

MAUDE: You’re welcome. (gesturing to the deceased) Did you know him?

HAROLD: Eh, no.

MAUDE: Me neither. I heard he was eighty years old. I’ll be eighty next week. A good time to move on, don’t you think?

HAROLD (trying to ignore her): I don’t know.

MAUDE: I mean, seventy-five is too early, but at eighty-five, well, you’re just marking time and you may as well look over the horizon.

MED. SHOT — ALTAR

The priest finishes the prayers and exits. The casket is closed and the pallbearers take it out the side door. The few mourners follow.

Maude is now sitting next to Harold.

MAUDE: I’ll never understand this mania for black. I mean no one sends black flowers, do they? Black flowers are dead flowers and who would send black flowers to a funeral? It’s absurd.

— Maude (Ruth Gordon), Harold (Bud Cort), Harold and Maude (1971), written by Colin Higgins

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=DxFhJ

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is meet-ups, suggested by Teddy Pasternak, who also suggested Harold and Maude.

Trivia: The soundtrack is by Cat Stevens, and includes two songs, “Don’t Be Shy” and “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” that he composed specifically for the movie, and which were unavailable on vinyl for over a decade; they were eventually released in 1984 on the compilation Footsteps in the Dark.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Black licorice, black flowers, their meeting at a funeral. Right there, Maude portends her own death.

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