Hal Ashby, turbulent genius of the '70s

His off-kilter vision is front and center in "Harold and Maude," a quirky comedy about the love affair between a suicidal teenager (Bud Cort) and a feisty senior (Ruth Gordon). "Not a lot of people would be able to handle it with the light touch he has," says academy programmer Ellen Harrington. "It's this kind of life-affirming connection that finds beauty in tragedy and dark humor."

His range as a filmmaker, Harrington says, was "amazing, whether he's looking at the superficial world of Beverly Hills' hairdressers and their sexual high jinks in 'Shampoo' or the really serious emotional dysfunction among Vietnam War vets and the tragedy that war visited on people who survived it in 'Coming Home.' He is really turning his lens quite specifically on American society."

"I didn't know Hal Ashby," Hanson says, "but one feels watching the movies that they are colored by his own optimism and his own open-hearted love of the characters. His films perfectly expressed the spirit that was in this country in the late '60s and '70s more than any other filmmaking I can think of."

Ashby also had a deft touch with actors. Four of his performers received Oscars for their work -- Lee Grant for "Shampoo," Voight and Jane Fonda for "Coming Home" and Melvyn Douglas for 1979's "Being There." Six more were nominated. (Ashby, a former film editor, won his only Oscar for cutting 1967's "In the Heat of the Night.")

"I compare him right now today to Phil Jackson of the Lakers, in that he enjoyed the players, but he didn't interfere," Voight says. "It was a tremendously freeing atmosphere and, in a sense, you couldn't believe you were being allowed that freedom of expression."

Crowe cites Ashby's use of music, whether it be the Cat Stevens songs or the ballads of Woody Guthrie in his 1976 biopic on the troubadour "Bound for Glory." Two years ago, his company released the restored soundtrack for "Harold and Maude." Doing the liner notes, Crowe and a colleague interviewed many who worked on the film.

"People were exploding with anecdotes and stories," Crowe says. "It has been exciting to see the appreciation become more and more powerful where a guy like Sam Mendes makes a movie like 'Away We Go' and openly references Hal."

Ashby, Crowe says, "has been an underappreciated guy, but like so many artists who were slightly ahead of their time, there is a zeitgeist moment that arrives. It feels that it's Hal's time."

The "Harold and Maude" screening is sold out, but there will be a standby line. For more information on the screenings, go to www.oscars.org. For information on the "Lookin' to Get Out" screening, go to www.cinema.ucla.edu.

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susan.king@latimes.com