HAROLD AND MAUDE find new life at The Westgate
07/14/22 • 38 min
Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE debuted to generally poor reviews, and worse box office. But in suburban Minneapolis, a humble second-run neighborhood theater called The Westgate found the film an audience...and helped turn it into one of the biggest cult hits of all time.
Host Rico Gagliano gets the story from HAROLD AND MAUDE producer Charles Mulvehill — one of the few living members of the film's creative team — and an endearing cast of local characters who, back in 1972, found themselves part of a one-in-a-million phenomenon.
To celebrate our new season of the podcast, we’re partnering with the American Cinematheque to present a screening of the new 4k restoration of HAROLD & MAUDE on Saturday July 16th at Los Angeles’s Los Feliz Theatre. Rico Gagliano and Amy Nicholson of the movie podcast “Unspooled” will attend for an in-person pre-screening discussion about the movie and this season. For more details, check out the American Cinematheque’s website here.
The second season of the MUBI Podcast titled “Only in Theaters” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had huge impacts on film history, and in some cases, history in general.
To stream some of the films we've covered on the podcast, check out the collection Featured on the MUBI Podcast. Availability of films varies depending on your country.
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
And with MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a hand-picked cinema ticket every single week, to see the best new films in real cinemas. To learn more, visit mubi.com/go
Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE debuted to generally poor reviews, and worse box office. But in suburban Minneapolis, a humble second-run neighborhood theater called The Westgate found the film an audience...and helped turn it into one of the biggest cult hits of all time.
Host Rico Gagliano gets the story from HAROLD AND MAUDE producer Charles Mulvehill — one of the few living members of the film's creative team — and an endearing cast of local characters who, back in 1972, found themselves part of a one-in-a-million phenomenon.
To celebrate our new season of the podcast, we’re partnering with the American Cinematheque to present a screening of the new 4k restoration of HAROLD & MAUDE on Saturday July 16th at Los Angeles’s Los Feliz Theatre. Rico Gagliano and Amy Nicholson of the movie podcast “Unspooled” will attend for an in-person pre-screening discussion about the movie and this season. For more details, check out the American Cinematheque’s website here.
The second season of the MUBI Podcast titled “Only in Theaters” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had huge impacts on film history, and in some cases, history in general.
To stream some of the films we've covered on the podcast, check out the collection Featured on the MUBI Podcast. Availability of films varies depending on your country.
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
And with MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a hand-picked cinema ticket every single week, to see the best new films in real cinemas. To learn more, visit mubi.com/go
Previous Episode
The Elgin and EL TOPO plunge NYC into "Midnite Madness"
In 1970, a scruffy repertory theater — led by the visionary Ben Barenholtz — quietly placed a print ad in the Village Voice, advertising midnight screenings of a Spanish-language western they claimed was "too heavy to be shown any other way." The movie was Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO, and it'd kick off the "Midnite Movie" craze that changed moviegoing.
Hear the history of the Elgin Theater and its legendary, weed-soaked screenings of EL TOPO, featuring commentary from ex-Voice critic J Hoberman, Amy Nicholson of the podcast "Unspooled," ex-Elgin programmers Chuck Zlatkin and Steve Gould...and Jodorowsky himself.
The second season of the MUBI Podcast titled “Only in Theaters” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had huge impacts on film history, and in some cases, history in general.
To stream some of the films we've covered on the podcast, check out the collection Featured on the MUBI Podcast. Availability of films varies depending on your country.
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
And with MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a hand-picked cinema ticket every single week, to see the best new films in real cinemas. To learn more, visit mubi.com/go
Next Episode
London's Scala Cinema becomes "A country club for lunatics" (feat. Mary Harron and Peter Strickland)
In the grey Thatcher-era England of the '80s, a romantically dilapidated London movie palace called The Scala beckoned to England's subcultures — and influenced filmmakers from Christopher Nolan to Steve McQueen.
Host Rico Gagliano learns the wild, seedy, and ultimately poignant history of what John Waters called, "A country club for lunatics." Special guests include directors Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO), Peter Strickland (BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO) and Prano Bailey-Bond (CENSOR), plus film producer and Scala founder Stephen Woolley (MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME), and Financial Times film critic Danny Leigh.
The second season of the MUBI Podcast titled “Only in Theaters” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had huge impacts on film history, and in some cases, history in general.
To stream some of the films we've covered on the podcast, check out the collection Featured on the MUBI Podcast. Availability of films varies depending on your country.
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
And with MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a hand-picked cinema ticket every single week, to see the best new films in real cinemas. To learn more, visit mubi.com/go
MUBI Podcast - HAROLD AND MAUDE find new life at The Westgate
Transcript
Heads up. This episode contains spoilers and descriptions of fictional self-harm.
Stockton is a mid-sized city in central California. A humble place. Gen-Xers like me might know it mainly as the birthplace of the band Pavement. And back in 1974, a producer named Charles Mulvehill found himself there working on a movie. Yeah, 1974, I was producing a film called Bound for Glory, in Stockton, California. And it was after we had filmed it w
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