American Beauty

American Beauty is a fantastic film that serves as a commentary on American society. The film is centered around the lives of two suburban families: the Burnhams and the Fitts. Lester Burnham [1] is a middle-aged white-collar worker who goes through a mid-life crisis when he decides that he want's to sleep with his daughter's best friend. Lester's wife, Carolyn [2], is a materialistic perfectionist who works as a  real estate agent. When Carolyn gets upset with Lester when he almost spills beer on their couch, his reply "It's just a couch! This isn't life. This is just stuff and it's become more important to you than living" summarizes her character perfectly. Lester and Carolyn's daughter, Jane [3], is an insecure high school student who wants to get breast enhancement surgery. Next door to the Burnhams is the Fitts family. Colonel Frank Fitts [4] is a retired Marine Corps Colonel who is extremely homophobic. His son, Ricky Fitts [5], is a high schooler and pot dealer who obsessively films his surroundings with his portable camcorder.

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The director, Sam Mendes uses Mise-en-Scène in a very unique and stylized way. He uses composition, visual motifs, and duration to enhance the movie. 

Mendes uses composition to emphasize the characters emotions. At the beginning of the film, Lester looks out his window to watch Carolyn talk to their neighbor. The composition of the shot is arranged so that Lester is centered in the frame in the background while Carolyn and the neighbor are in the foreground on either side of Lester [1]. This shot arrangement emphasizes Lester's feeling of being in the middle of his family's life while at the same time not being wanted. A little later in the story, Lester's face is reflected in his computer screen. The text on the screen is arranged to look like the bars on a jail cell [2]. This reflects Lester's feeling of being trapped in a job that he does not enjoy. Not soon after, Lester is called into his boss's office to discuss his future with the company. Lester is seated unnaturally far away from the desk [3]. This highlights Lester's feeling of being small and unimportant where he works.

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A visual motif used constantly throughout the film is roses. Roses symbolize desire. They are used mostly in the presence of Lester and Carolyn. When used with Lester, they symbolize his lust for Angela. There are tons of these shots. When Lester fantasizes in bed about Angela, he gazes up to the ceiling in wonder at his vision of Angela, who is sprawled naked on the ceiling covered in flower pedals [1]. Later on, Lester has a day dream about making out with Angela, but when they stop, he pulls a rose petal out of his mouth [2]. Further along, Lester has yet another vision of Angela, who is seductively waiting for him in a bathtub full of pedals [3]. In all of these scenes, the presence of the rose petals is what alerts the audience that what we are seeing is not reality but is actually Lester's fantasy.

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Roses do not solely symbolize Lester's lust for Angela, however. They also symbolize his newfound lust for life. When Lester buys the car of his dreams, a red 1970 Pontiac Firebird, he smugly sits nearby a vase of roses as he waits for Carolyn [1]. Near the end of the movie, Lester finally learns to love his daughter. When he asks Angela how his daughter life is going, there is a vase of roses on the table behind her [2]. A little later, Lester sits at a table with a vase of roses on it while gazing longingly at a picture of his family [3]. Flowers that symbolize Lester's lust for are always inside a vase, where someone would realistically encounter roses. This contrasts nicely with the roses that symbolize Lester's lust for Angela, which are always in unrealistic places, like defying gravity on his ceiling and in his mouth. This implies that Lester's lust for life is realistic, while his lust for Angela was not.

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Mendes uses duration in an interesting way. He uses a stretch relationship for certain shots in order to make us see through Lester's eyes. A stretch relationship is when the screen duration is longer than the plot duration. The screen duration is the running time of the movie and the plot duration is the elapsed time of the plot. So, when a scene, sequence, or shot is longer than it actually took place in the story, this relationship is called a stretch relationship. This type of shot is used constantly throughout the movie. Mendes uses it whenever Lester is aroused by Angela, by rapidly repeating the action that causes the arousal three times before continuing on with the shot. When Lester see's Angela for the first time, he imagines her flashing him [1]. The movement of Angela opening her jacket is repeated three times before she finally pulls it open. Later on, Angela grabs Lester's arm while reaching past him. The film shows Angela reaching three times before her hand reaches his arm. Much further along, Lester is finally seducing Angela on his couch. As he pulls her pants off of her, we see this action three times before he finally succeeds. The repetition of the stretch relationship cements the idea that what we are seeing is important to Lester.

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American Beauty is film that uses Mise-en-Scène to its advantage. By utilizing composition, visual motifs, and duration, Mendes intensifies the viewer’s connection to the movie. Personally, I think this movie's technical creativity, such as it's is fantastic use of Mise-en-Scène is one of the major factors that makes it universally loved. If you're looking for a good movie to watch, I highly recommend this one.

Works Cited

American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. Dreamworks, 1999. DVD.Barsam, Richard, and Dave
Barsam, Richard and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
"American Beauty (1999 Film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Beauty_%281999_film%29>.

"American Beauty." Ew.com. Entertainment Weekly, n.d. Web.
<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0%2C%2C20000552%2C00.html>.

Fetters, Ashley, and Esther Zuckerman. "Examining 'American Beauty' at 15: A Masterpiece, or a Farce? | EW.com." EW.com. Entertainment Weekly, 15 Sept. 2014. Web.
<http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/09/15/amerian-beauty-15th-anniversary/>.