Depressed by life, and rejected by his wealthy mother (Vivian Pickles), teenager Harold (Bud Cort) is fascinated by death, drives a hearse and gatecrashes funerals for fun. It's at a graveyard that he meets 79-year-old free spirit Maude (Ruth Gordon), and the pair then embark on an unlikely relationship. You could call it bad taste, but rarely has such a strange love affair been presented so charmingly as in this cult classic from director Hal Ashby (Being There). The performances of the wonderfully poker-faced Cort and the irrepressible Gordon make the central premise - that love can blossom at any age - believable and moving, in a movie that, for all its eccentricities, likes people. The memorable soundtrack by Cat Stevens is an added delight.

A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.