American Beauty

Choose a scene from American Beauty and Analyse its effectiveness. American beauty is a film, which was made in 1999, set in the suburbs. The husband and wife are living in a house, which looks perfect from the outside, but in fact their marriage is all for show. The protagonist, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is going through a midlife crisis. He is depressed and gets pushed around by his wife, Carolyn (Annette Benning). Everything changes when Lester meets his daughter’s best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari), He becomes almost obsessed with her, and decides to better himself for her, so that she will fancy him, and like him back. This is what causes a change in Lester’s life. He quits his job, and gets another job with “the lowest responsibility possible”, Which is a cashier at a fast food restaurant. Lester acts more and more like a teenager as the film progresses, which makes him relate to the audience, because the audience find him funny, as there is a element of comedy in this. American beauty is a dramatic drama from the start. At the start of the film, we see two teenagers talking about killing a girls dad, who the audience don’t yet know is Lester. We then hear Lester narrating the next scene, saying that in a year he will be dead. This leaves the audience with an enigma to be solved, and we can make the connotation that the two teenagers at the start of the film have killed him, which makes the audience want to keep watching. The scene which I have chosen to analyse is the scene where Lester is in bed fantasising about Angel, and the roses are falling down on him. The roses in American beauty; In American Beauty, the roses are used to symbolize many, for example sex, passion and love ect. The roses could also connote life, Perhaps Lester’s life. The first time we see them, Carolyn is cutting them, so metaphorically, she is cutting the life of Lester, which is causing him to have a midlife crisis. The roses for Lester in this scene however represent sex, and passion, as they usually appear when Lester is having a fantasy about Angela. In this scene, we see Angela floating on a bed of roses, which connotes that she is surrounded by passion, or perhaps full of passion, this relates to Barthes theory of symbolism. With only the petals falling on Lester, this could represent that the thorns have been lost, which could symbolize Carolyn, and the petals could symbolise Angela. Although Lester is having a fantasy about Angela, he is laying next to Carolyn, So this introduces binary proposition, of passion, and love versus hate. From this scene, I can connotation that he has

been awakened by Angela, which is shown in the literal sense of him laying on his back awake, when he should be asleep. It connotes that his life is once again awake, and he is ready to start living again. During this scene, we see the light not on him, but on Angela, this connotes that Angela is the light in his life at the minute. Angel is the spark that lights his fire, and causes the events to roll out, and take place the way they do.

The scene starts with an establishing shot of Lester in bed smiling and looking up at the ceiling. This is effective because the audience don’t yet know what he is smiling at. The camera then zooms in to a close up of his face, and soon changes to another establishing shot of what Lester is looking at. During this scene, there are around 6 different shots. Six shots is not really a lot of shots to use, but this fits in well because it makes the scene a slower pace, than perhaps a scene which contains a lot of action. During this scene, the male gaze convention is put into effect. In this case it is really obvious to the audience, which makes it easier for the audience to see what he is think, and what are his intentions. Carolyn is facing away from Lester during this scene, through her body language, we can connote that she is simply facing away from him, and his life, and she is trying to have the least amount of contact with him as possible. She is simply sharing the same bed as him, therefore reducing the romance in their relationship. This makes the audience connote that they are both in a loveless marriage, which furthers the point of everything being for show. During this scene, the set, which is the bedroom is simple, and there is nothing out of place. The way the props are placed, is organised. I connote that this bedroom has been organised by Carolyn, as her character is the leader in the relationship, she decorated this room, and keeps it tidy, as she is a tidy character. The fact that Lester is fantasising over someone who he just met, shows he has a “crush”, which is a teenage thing to have. This shows the audience that his teenagers years are coming more to the surface, as the film progresses. This scene is one of the most sexual scenes of the movie. the fact that this scene is quite near to the start of the movie almost creates an enigma, because we (the audience) can guess that there will be some kind of relationship with Lester and Angela, whether that be sexual, or emotional (more likely sexual).

The narration during this scene is “it’s the weirdest thing, I feel like I’ve been in a coma for about 20 years and I’m just waking now” This defiantly shows the audience that Angel is the cause for the storyline of this movie. During this scene, I think that it is more aimed at men, because the use of male gaze is present throughout the scene. Lester is obviously gazing at Angela, and Angela is staring into the camera, Which will connect with the audience, particularly the male audience. This supports Laura Mulvey’s theory, of the male gaze. This scene, and the dance scene is Lester’s disequilibrium. By seeing Angela, he is instantly awakened, and suddenly starts fascinating over her, which relates to Barthes theory of the enigma, and Angel is this enigma, because we, as the audience don’t know the consequences of his actions towards Angela. Lester is the hero, and Angela is the princess, because Angela is something which the hero (Lester) gains at the end of the text. From an audience perspective, I believe that the movie was written for everyone, as it can relate to a wide range audience, because the film contains an element of comedy, and drama. The characters in the movie can also relate to the audience, for example through age categories. Angela, Jane, and Ricky can relate to the younger generation because they are in high school still, whilst Lester and Carolyn can relate to middle aged audience, because perhaps anyone of the same age may be going through a mid life crisis also. Cornel Fitz can relate to anyone older, because of his old-fashioned morals, and strict beliefs. I think that the scene which I analysed was an effective scene, because within this scene, the iconography of the roses is used a lot, which is what the film is well know for. I think that the use of roses is a very effective way to symbolise any kind of sexual meaning to the audience, because it allows them to think, and imagine their own ideas of what they mean. Also the roses symbolises love, and passion, which is what the film is about, the loss of love and passion in a marriage, which causes a man to have a midlife crisis, which then causes disaster. Also another effective convention raised in this scene is the male gaze, and what the effects could be, if one becomes too obsessed with this gaze. Throughout this scene, I found myself asking “what will happen next”, and I do not think that I am alone with this, because in this scene, is the enigma, which could perhaps lead to the chain of events which will lead to the tragic ending.