Harold and Maude Seminar Preview
- Film meets philosophy: Intertextuality!!!
- The film is a cult classic from the 1970’s starring Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon with an original soundtrack by Cat Stevens.
- We will watch the film with attention to the philosophical lenses we have been studying: existentialism and Aristotle’s Eudaimonia.
- You will annotate the film and answer seminar prep questions before Wednesday’s seminar.
- After the seminar, you will write a reflection and a synthesis. The synthesis entails several TEA paragraphs based on a literary claim drawn from the seminar themes.
- SEMINAR PREP: due at the beginning of class tomorrow.
Film Screening: Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude Seminar Prep
Think of a film as a text. Annotate it as you watch, analyze, look for evidence. Refer to the specifics of the film in seminar!
AFTER THE MOVIE….Prepare answers to some or all of the following questions, using evidence from the film to support your answers. Print out your seminar prep and bring it with you to the seminar.
1. Is Harold and Maude an existentialist film?
2. What are the roots of Harold’s angst and alienation? How do his ideas about happiness and meaning evolve as a result of his relationship with Maude? How does his character change?
3. Has Maude has achieved Eudaimonia at the end of her life (deathbed question)? Would Aristotle see her as having cultivated virtue and the Golden Mean? Or do you see her as an existentialist?
4. What message is this movie trying to transmit? What might it be trying to teach us about Happiness and Meaning? How does it impact you personally? Is it rhetorically effective for you?
5. Identify 2-3 impactful quotes from the film and explain their literary significance.