This weekend the Egyptian is showing the greatest movie ever made, Harold and Maude. It’s the story of a sad boy named Harold who falls in love with an energetic septuagenarian named Maude. The last time this was a midnight movie, the print broke, and the entire audience gasped like it had just had its collective feet stepped on. (They fixed it and everything was just fine.) Is it possible to not love Harold and Maude? If it is, I don’t want you to tell me.

Harold is young and rich, and obsessed with death to the point that he frequently stages suicides for his mother’s benefit. (”Were they all done for your mother’s benefit?” “No. No, I would not say ‘benefit’.”) Maude is 79 and a Holocaust survivor, but full of energy and what some would call a lust for life. She catches him up in her whirlwind, taking him on adventures returning city trees to the woods and giving him a banjo. The soundtrack is entirely by Cat Stevens, including two songs that were written just for the movie and are still a bit difficult to find.

When I was in high school I developed the habit of watching Harold and Maude after funerals or memorial services. It’s a habit that continues today. The movie was a commercial flop even though it was a critical success when it came out, and it’s developed a very sincere cult following since.