American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a 42-year-old advertising executive who experienced a midlife crisis when he became infatuated with his teenage girlfriend Angela (Mena Suvari). Annette Bening plays the materialistic wife of Lester, Carolyn, and Thora Birch playing their unsafe daughter, Jane. Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney also performed. The film is portrayed by academics as a satire of American middle-class understanding of beauty and personal satisfaction; analysis has focused on the exploration of romantic and paternal love and love movies, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption.
Ball began writing American Beauty as a drama in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus around Amy Fisher's trial in 1992. She ruled out the drama after realizing that her story would not work on stage. After several years as a television screenwriter, Ball revived the idea in 1997 while trying to get into the film industry. The rewritten texts have a cynical view that is influenced by the writings of mastery of Bola frustration for some sitcoms. Producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen took American Beauty to the new DreamWorks studio, which bought the $ 250,000 script, outselling some other production agencies. DreamWorks financed $ 15 million in production and served as a North American distributor. American Beauty marks the debut of director Mendes movie theater; stunned after the success of musical productions Oliver! and Cabaret , Mendes was only given a job after 20 other people were considered and some A-list directors refused the opportunity.
Spacey was Mendes' first choice for Lester's role, although DreamWorks urged him to consider more well-known actors; Similarly, the studio suggested several actors for the role of Carolyn until Mendes offered the passage to Bening without the knowledge of DreamWorks. The main photography took place between December 1998 and February 1999 on a soundstage on the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and at a location in Los Angeles. Mendes's dominant style is deliberate and composed; it uses an extensive static shot and a slow pan and zooms to produce tension. Cinematographer Conrad Hall complements Mendes's style with peaceful shooting compositions in contrast to turbulent scenes on display. During editing, Mendes made some changes that gave the film a more cynical tone than the script.
Released in North America on September 17, 1999, American Beauty was received positively by critics and earned $ 356 million more worldwide. Reviewer praises most aspects of production, with special emphasis on Mendes, Spacey, and Ball; critics focused on character intimacy and setting. DreamWorks launched a major campaign to increase the chances of an Academy Award success film; at the 72nd Academy Awards the following year, the film won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (for Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. It was nominated for and won many other honors and awards, especially for directions, writing, and acting.
Video American Beauty (1999 film)
Plot
Lester Burnham is a middle-aged office worker who hates his job. His wife, Carolyn, is an ambitious real estate broker; their sixteen-year-old daughter, Jane, hates her parents and has low self-esteem. Burnhams new neighbors are retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts and his close-catatonic wife, Barbara. Teenage Fitts, Ricky, obsessively filmed his environment with a camcorder, collecting hundreds of recordings on video cassettes in his bedroom. He also secretly deals with cannabis, using his job as a part-time caterer to help keep his father secret. Having previously been forced into the military academy and mental hospital, Ricky was targeted by Colonel Fitts to live a strict discipline lifestyle. Jim Olmeyer and Jim Berkley, a gay couple living nearby, welcomed the family to the neighborhood; Kol Fitts later revealed his homophobia when angrily discussing the incident with Ricky.
Lester becomes infatuated with Jane's cheerleading friend Angela Hayes after seeing him performing a routine half-time dance in a high school basketball game. He started to have sexual fantasies about Angela, where red rose petals are a recurring motif. Carolyn started an affair with a married business rival, Buddy Kane. Lester was told he should be dismissed, but instead squeezed his boss for $ 60,000 and quit his job, took a job serving fast food. He buys his dream car and starts working after he overhears Angela telling Jane that she'll find her sexually attractive if she improves her physique. She starts smoking the marijuana provided by Ricky, and teases Angela every time she visits Jane. The girls' friendship diminished after Jane started a relationship with Ricky; they tied up what Ricky thought to be the most beautiful image he had ever recorded: a wind-blown plastic bag.
Lester found Carolyn's affair, but reacted indifferently. Buddy ends his affair, afraid of an expensive divorce. Colonel Fitts became suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship and later found his son's record of a naked Lester lifting weights, which Ricky had taken by chance. After watching Ricky and Lester through Lester's garage window, Colonel Fitts mistakenly concluded that they were sexually involved. He then defeats Ricky and accuses him of being gay. Ricky pleaded guilty to the charge and drove his father to evict him from their home. Carolyn was shown sitting in her car, where she took the pistol from the glove box. Ricky goes to Jane, finding him arguing with Angela about her seduction with Lester. Ricky convinces Jane to escape with him to New York City and tells Angela that she's boring and casual.
Kol Fitts confronts Lester and tries to kiss her; Lester rejected the colonel, who escaped. Lester found Angela confused sitting alone in the dark; he asked her to say that she is beautiful. He did it; the couple kissed, but moments before they would have sex, Angela admitted that she was a virgin and Lester decided not to do it. Instead, they talk, and bind to their frustrations. Angela goes to the bathroom and Lester smiles at a family photo in her kitchen. An invisible figure pointed the gun behind Lester's head; the sound of gunfire and blood spray onto the wall in front of him. Ricky and Jane find Lester's body, while Carolyn is seen crying in the closet. The bloody Colonel Fitts went home, where the gun disappeared from his collection. Lester's closing description illustrates a meaningful experience in his life; He says that, despite his death, he is happy because there is so much beauty in the world.
Maps American Beauty (1999 film)
Theme and analysis
Many interpretations
Academics and academics have offered many possible readings of American Beauty ; film critics are equally divided, not so much about film quality, as their interpretation. Described by many as the "meaning of life" or "hollow existence from the periphery of America", this film has rejected categorization by even filmmakers. Mendes hesitated, saying the manuscript seemed to be something different every time he read it: "a mystery story, a kaleidoscopic journey through the American suburbs, a series of love stories;... [about] prison, Ã, [... ] lonely, [and] beauty, that's funny, it's angry, sad. "Literary critic and writer Wayne C. Booth concluded that the film rejects any interpretation:" American Beauty can not be summarized adequately because 'here is the satire of what is wrong with American life': under the celebration of beauty It is more tempting to sum it up as 'the portrait of beauty underlying the misery and misbehavior of America', but it undermines scenes of cruelty and horror, and disgust Ball with our customs.This can not be summed up either by Lester or Ricky's philosophical statement about what life is or how one should live. "He argues that the problem of interpreting this film related to finding its center - a voice that controls "[unifies] all options". He argues that in the case of American Beauty ', it is not Mendes or Ball. Mendes considers the voice to be Ball's, but although the author is "very influential" on the set, he often has to accept deviations from his vision, especially those that change his cynical tone to something more optimistic. With "countless votes disturbing to the original author," said Booth, people who interpret American Beauty have forgotten to investigate for an elusive center. According to Booth, the true controller of the film is creative energy "that put hundreds of people into production, agree and disagree, insert and cut".
Imprisonment and redemption
Mendes called American Beauty a movie ritual about prison and escaped from prison. The greatness of Lester's existence was built through his inconspicuous gray workplace and his characterless outfit. In this scene, he is often tricked into being trapped, "repeating an almost unpleasant ritual". She masturbates in the bathroom; shower stalls raise prison cells and shots are the first of many places Lester is limited behind bars or in frames, as when he is reflected behind a number column on a computer monitor, "limited [and] almost crossed out." Academics and writer Jody W. Pennington argues that Lester's journey is central to his story. His sexual awakening through Angela's encounter was the first of several turning points when he began "[discarding] from the responsibility of the comfortable life he hates." After Lester shared his cooperation with Ricky, his spirits were released and he began to rebel against Carolyn. Changed by "interesting and deep sense of confidence" Ricky, Lester was convinced that Angela could be reached and saw that she had to question "the presence of a shallow and deadly suburb"; he took a job at fast food outlets, allowing him to retreat to the point when he could "see his whole life in front of him".
When Lester was caught masturbating by Carolyn, his angry response to their lack of intimacy was the first time he had said aloud what he thought of himself. Facing the problem and Carolyn's "superficial investment in others", Lester sought to "regain voice in a house that [honored] the voice of mother and daughter". His final turning point came when Angela and she almost had sex; after he confesses his virginity, he no longer considers it a sex object, but as a daughter. He holds it tightly and "wraps it up". Mendes called it "the most satisfying end to the [Lester] trip there that might have happened". With this final scene, Mendes intends to show Lester at the conclusion of a "mystical quest". After Lester took the beer from the fridge, the camera pushed toward him, then stopped facing the aisle where he walked "to meet his fate". After he started acting his age again, Lester reached the closing. As she smiled at the family photograph, the camera slowly darted from Lester to the kitchen wall, where the blood radiated as a shooting ring; The slow pot reflects Lester's peace. His body was found by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky looked into Lester's dead eyes as the "top of the movie" theme: the beauty was found in the most unexpected place.
Conformity and beauty
Like other American films of 1999 - such as Fight Club , Bringing Out the Dead , and Magnolia , American Beauty > instructing his audience to "[lead] a more meaningful life". The film debates the case against conformity, but does not deny that people need and want it; even gay characters just want to adjust. Jim and Jim, the other neighbors of Burnhams, are the satirs of the "bourgeois gay couple", who "[invest] in numb similarities" that the film criticizes heterosexual couples. Feminist academic and writer Sally R. Munt argues that American Beauty uses the ornament of "art house" to direct its discrepancy messages especially to the middle class, and that this approach is "clich > of bourgeois preoccupation; [...] the underlying premise is that the luxury of finding individual 'self' through rejection and rejection is always open to those who are wealthy enough to vote, and sly enough to present themselves sympathetically. as a rebel. "
Professor Roy M. Anker argues that the thematic center of the film is his direction to the audience to "take a closer look". This opening combines an unfamiliar point of view from the Burnhams environment with Lester's admission that this is the last day of his life, forcing viewers to consider their own death and the beauty around them. It also sets out a series of mysteries; Anker asks, "from what place exactly, and from what circumstances, does he tell this story? If he is dead, why bother with anything he wants to tell you about the last year of his life There are also questions how Lester has died - or will die. "Anker believes the previous scene - Jane's discussion with Ricky about the possibility of him killing his father - adds further mystery. Professor Ann C. Hall disagrees; he said by presenting an early resolution to the mystery, the film allows viewers to set aside "to see the movie and its philosophical problems". Through Lester's examination of life, rebirth and death, American Beauty insinuated the American middle-class understanding of meaning, beauty and contentment. Even Lester's transformation only occurred because of the possibility of having sex with Angela; Therefore he remains a "devoted worshiper of the popular media of male sexuality as a plausible path to personal wholeness". Carolyn is also driven by the conventional view of happiness; from his belief in domestic happiness "beautiful home" for his car and his gardening clothes, the Carolyn domain is "the vision of the millennium of America from Pleasantville, or Eden." The Burnhams do not realize that they are "philosophical materialists, and ethically pious consumers" who expect "the basics of American beauty" to give them happiness. Anker argues that "they are powerless in the face of prioritized economic and sexual stereotypes [...] that they and their culture have set for their salvation."
This film presents Ricky as a visionary, spiritual, and mystical center. He sees beauty in the little things in everyday life, recording as much as he can for fear of losing him. She showed Jane what she considered the most beautiful thing she had ever seen: a plastic bag, thrown into the wind in front of the wall. He says capture the moment when he realizes that there is "all life behind things"; he feels that "sometimes there is so much beauty in the world I feel like I can not take it... and my heart is going away." Anker argues that Ricky, in viewing past "cultural waste", has "[understood] the shining glory of the created world" to see God. As the film progresses, Burnhams gets closer to Ricky's view of the world. Lester only holds to personal satisfaction at the end of the film. At the peak point of having sex with Angela, she returns to herself after she recognizes her virginity. Suddenly confronted with a child, he begins to treat her as a daughter; in doing so, Lester saw himself, Angela, and his family "for their poor and fragile but amazing creature". He sees his family picture in happy times, and dies after having an epiphany that transmits him with "gratitude, joy, and a vibrating soul" - he has finally seen the world as it is.
According to Patti Bellantoni, colors are used symbolically throughout the film, nothing more than red, which is an important thematic sign that moves the story and "[defines] Lester's arc". First seen in dull colors that reflect his passivity, Lester surrounds himself with red as he regains his individuality. The American Beauty rose repeatedly used as a symbol; when Lester fantasizes about Angela, she is usually naked and surrounded by rose petals. In this scene, the rose symbolizes Lester's desire for him. When associated with Carolyn, the rose represents "faÃÆ'§ade for suburban success". Roses were put in almost every shot in the Burnhams' house, where they signaled "a mask that masked a bleak and unpleasant reality". Carolyn felt that "as long as there is a rose, everything is fine". He cuts the roses and puts them in a vase, where they adorn the "melodious vision of what makes beauty" and begin to die. The rose in the vase in the Angela-Lester seduction scene symbolizes Lester's previous life and Carolyn; the camera pushed as Lester and Angela got closer, finally taking the roses - and thus Carolyn - out of the shot. Epiphany Lester at the end of the film is expressed by the rain and the use of red, builds into crescendo which is a deliberate contrast to the release that Lester feels. The constant use of "red lulls" subliminally becomes familiar with it; consequently, leaving the audience unprepared when Lester was shot and his blood splashed on the wall.
Sexuality and oppression
Pennington argues that American Beauty defines its character through their sexuality. Lester's attempt to revive his youth was a direct result of his passion for Angela, and his relationship with Carolyn was in part shown by the lack of sexual contact. Also sexually frustrated, Carolyn has an affair that takes her from a "cold perfectionist" to a more carefree soul who "[sings] happily with" the music in her car. Jane and Angela constantly refer sex, through Angela's description of her sexual relationship and the way the girls greeted each other. Their nude scene is used to communicate their vulnerability. At the end of the film, Angela's grip on Jane has weakened until the only strength she has over her friend is Lester's interest in her. Colonel Fitts reacted with disgust to meet Jim and Jim; he asked, "Why should these faggs always have to rub them in your face? How can they be so shameless?" Ricky replied, "That's the problem, Dad - they do not feel that's a shame." Pennington argues that Kol Fitts's reaction is not homophobic, but a "sad self-interrogation".
With other turn-of-the-millennium movies such as Fight Club , In Male Company (1997), American Psycho (2000), and < i> Boys Do not Cry Ã, (1999), American Beauty "raised the issue of masculinity in a wider and much-explored crisis". Professor Vincent Hausmann alleged that in reinforcing their masculinity "against the threat posed by war, by consumerism, and by feminist and strange challenges", these films present the need to "focus on, and even to the privilege" the aspects of discontent " "deviate. '. "Lester's transformation conveyed" that he, and not the woman, had borne the burden "and that he would not stand to be castrated Lester's attempt to" strengthen traditional masculine conflict "with his responsibility as a a father.Although this film illustrates the way Lester returns to that role positively, he is not a "hypermasculine figure implicitly celebrated in films like Fight Club." Hausmann concludes that Lester's behavior towards Angela is "a step who is misleading but almost needs to be heading towards becoming a father again ".
Hausmann said the film "explicitly affirms the importance of enforcing a ban on incest"; the recurrent theme of Ball's work is his comparison of the taboos of incest and homosexuality. Instead of making a difference open, American Beauty see how their oppression can lead to violence. Colonel Fitts was so ashamed of his homosexuality that he encouraged him to kill Lester. Ball said, "The film is partly about how homophobia is based on fear and oppression and about what [they] can do." The film implies two unfulfilled incestuous desires: Lester's pursuit of Angela is a manifestation of his passion for his own daughter, while Colonel Fitts's repression is exhibited through the almost sexual discipline he controls Ricky. As a result, Ricky realizes that he can only hurt his father by telling him that he is homosexual, while Angela's vulnerability and obedience to Lester reminds him of his responsibilities and fantasy limits. Colonel Fitts represents Ball's father, whose oppressed homosexual passion causes his own unhappiness. The ball rewrites Colonel Fitts to delay revealing it as homosexual, which Munt reads as a possible "postponement of patriarchal patrimarkal fantasy Ball".
Temporality and music
American Beauty follows the traditional narrative structure, only distorted by the opening scenes of Jane and Ricky who were exiled from the middle of the story. Although the plot is one year old, the film is narrated by Lester at the time of his death. Jacqueline Furby says that the plot "[...] has no time [or] all the time", citing Lester's claim that life does not blink before his eyes, but it "stretches forever like a sea of ​​time". Furby argues that the "repetitious rhythm" forms the core of the film structure. For example, two scenes have Burnhams sitting for dinner, shot from the same angle. Each image is generally the same, with little difference in object placement and body language reflecting the changing dynamics caused by Lester's newly discovered firmness. Another example is a pair of scenes where Jane and Ricky filmed each other. Ricky filmed Jane from her bedroom window as she took off her bra, and the picture was later reversed for the same "voyeuristic and exhibitionist" scene in which Jane filmed Ricky at a vulnerable moment.
Lester's fantasy is emphasized by slow motion and repetitive motion; Mendes uses double and triple cuts in several sequences, and the score changes to make the audience aware that it is entering a fantasy. One example is the gym scene - Lester's first encounter with Angela. While the cheerleaders do their half-time routine to "On Broadway", Lester becomes increasingly fixated on Angela. Time slowed to represent her "voyeuristic hypnosis" and Lester began to fantasize that Angela's performance was only for herself. "On Broadway" - which provides a conventional underline for on-screen action - is replaced by discordant percussion percussion music that has no melody or development. This nondiegetic score is important for creating narrative stasis in sequence; it delivered a moment for Lester that stretched to an indeterminate length. The effect is that Stan Link likens the "vertical time," described by composer and musical theorist Jonathan Kramer as the music that imparts "a gift that spans a huge, potentially infinite 'now' duration that still feels like instantaneous". The music was used like a visual cue, so Lester and his score looked at Angela. The sequence ends with a sudden reintroduction of "On Broadway" and teleological time.
According to Drew Miller of Stylus, the soundtrack "gives the unconscious sound" to the character's soul and completes the subtext. The most obvious use of pop music "accompanies and gives context to" Lester's attempts to reclaim his adolescence; reminiscent of how the counter-culture of the 1960s against American oppression through music and drugs, Lester began smoking cannabis and listening to rock music. Mendes' song selection "progressed through the history of American popular music". Miller argues that although some may be more familiar, there is a parody element in the workplace, "making good on the [movie] impulse that makes viewers look closer." Toward the end of the film, Thomas Newman's scores became more prominent, creating an "annoying tempo" that matched the visual tension. The exceptions are "Do not Let It Bring You Down", which was played during Angela's seduction of Lester. At first precise, the tone of the impact when the seduction stopped. The lyrics, which speak of "palace burnings", can be seen as a metaphor for Lester's view of Angela - "a shimmering exterior, American Beauty sparks-fantasy" - for burning to reveal "shy girl , small-breasted who, like his wife, has deliberately developed a false public self ".
Production
Development
In 1997, Alan Ball decided to move into the film industry after several frustrating years of writing for Grace Under Fire television comedy and Cybill. He joined the United Talent Agency, where his deputy, Andrew Cannava, advised him to write a special script to "reintroduce [himself] to the city as a screenwriter". The ball throws three ideas into Cannava: two conventional romantic comedies and American Beauty , which he originally thought of as a drama in the early 1990s. Despite the lack of a marketable concept, Cannava chose American Beauty because he felt it was Ball's most popular ball. While developing the script, Ball creates another television sitcom, Oh, Grow Up . He channeled his anger and frustration at having to meet the demands of the network on the show - and during his tenure at Grace Under Fire and Cybill - in the writing of the American Beauty Center .
Ball did not expect to sell the script, believing it would act as more of a calling card, but American Beauty drew interest from some production agencies. Cannava gave the script to several manufacturers, including Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who took him to DreamWorks. With the help of executives Glenn Williamson and Bob Cooper, and Steven Spielberg in his capacity as a studio partner, Ball is confident to develop projects at DreamWorks; he received a guarantee from the studio - known at the time because of his more conventional charges - that it would not "iron the edges". In an unusual step, DreamWorks decides not to select the script; instead, in April 1998, the studio purchased it for $ 250,000 instantly, beating Fox Searchlight Pictures, the October Movie, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Lakeshore Entertainment. DreamWorks plans to make a movie for $ 6-8 million.
Jinks and Cohen involve Ball throughout the film's development, including casting and director selection. The producers met with about 20 interested directors, some of whom were considered A listings at the time. Ball is not interested in a more famous director because he believes their involvement will increase the budget and cause DreamWorks to be "nervous with content". Nevertheless, the studio offers the film to Mike Nichols and Robert Zemeckis; not accepted. That same year Mendes (then a theater director) revived the Cabaret musical in New York with director Rob Marshall. Beth Swofford from the Creative Artists Agency arranged a meeting for Mendes with studio figures in Los Angeles to see if the direction of the film was a possibility. Mendes found American Beauty in a pile of eight scripts at Swofford's house, and soon learned that it was what he wanted to make; early in his career, he was inspired by how the film Paris, Texas (1984) presents contemporary America as a mythical landscape and he sees the same theme in American Beauty, as well as parallels his childhood own. Mendes then meets Spielberg; impressed by Mendes production from Oliver! and Cabaret , Spielberg encouraged her to consider American Beauty .
Mendes finds that he still has to convince DreamWorks production executives to let him go straight. He has already discussed movies with Jinks and Cohen, and feels they support him. The ball is also sharp; after seeing Cabaret, he was impressed with Mendes's "strong visual senses" and thought he had not made a clear choice. Ball feels that Mendes likes to look beneath the surface of the story, the talent that he feels will fit the themes of American Beauty . Mendes's background also convinced him, because of the main role played by playwrights in the theater production. More than two meetings - first with Cooper, Walter Parkes, and Laurie MacDonald, the second with Cooper himself - Mendes put himself in the studio. The studio immediately approached Mendes with an agreement to direct the minimum allowable allowance under the Guild of America Board of Directors - $ 150,000. Mendes was accepted, and then recalled that after his tax and agent commissions, he only earned $ 38,000. In June 1998, DreamWorks confirmed that they had contracted Mendes to direct the film.
Write
The ball was partially inspired by two meetings he had in the early 1990s. Around 1991-92, Ball saw a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center. He watched the bag for 10 minutes, saying later that it provoked an "unexpected emotional response". In 1992, Ball became busy with a media circus around Amy Fisher's trial. Finding a comic book that tells the scandal, he was surprised by how quickly it was commercialized. He said he "feels like there's a real story underneath [more] more interesting and more tragic" than the story presented to the public, and is trying to turn the idea into a drama. The ball produces about 40 pages, but stops when it realizes it will work better as a movie. He feels that because of the visual theme, and because each character story is "very personal", it can not be done on stage. All the main characters appear in this version, but Carolyn does not display strongly; Jim and Jim even have a much bigger role.
The ball was based on Lester's story about his own life aspect. Lester's re-examination of his life parallels Ball's feelings in his mid-30s; like Lester, Ball put aside his desire to work in a job he hates for people he does not respect. The scene in Ricky's household reflects Ball's own childhood experience. Ball suspects his father is a homosexual and uses the idea to create a Col. Fitts, a man who "shed the chance to be himself". Ball said the mixture of comedy and drama was not deliberate, but it was not realized from his own view of life. He says juxtaposition produces sharp contrast, giving each of the traits more impact than if they appeared alone.
In a script sent to prospective actors and directors, Lester and Angela have sex; at the time of shooting, Ball has rewritten the scene to the final version. The ball initially rejected the advice of others that he changed the script, feeling that they were puritanical; The final thrust to change the scene comes from past president of DreamWorks, Walter Parkes. He assured Ball by pointing out that in Greek mythology, the hero "had a moment of enlightenment before [...] a tragedy" occurred. Ball then says his anger when writing the first draft has blinded him to the idea that Lester should refuse sex with Angela to complete his emotional journey - to achieve redemption. Jinks and Cohen asked Ball not to change the scene immediately, because they felt it was inappropriate to make changes to the script before a director was hired. The original concept also included flashbacks to the Colonel Fitts service in the Marines, a sequence that explicitly establishes its homosexual propensity. In love with another Marine, Colonel Fitts saw the man die and came to believe that he was being punished for "sin" being gay. The ball is removed sequence because it does not match the structure of the rest of the film - Col. Fitts are the only characters that have flashbacks - and therefore eliminate the element of surprise from Col's introductory letter. Fitts later in Lester. Ball said he had to write it down for his own sake to know what happened to Col. Fitts, though all that remains in the next draft is implied.
The ball remains engaged throughout production; he has signed a television development agreement, so it must get permission from his producer to take a year off to approach American Beauty. Ball is set for rewriting and to help interpret the script for all but two days of filming. The original bookend scene - where Ricky and Jane were sued for Lester's killing after being framed by Colonel Fitts - was excommunicated in postproduction; the author then feels that the scene is unnecessary, saying that it is a reflection of his "anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see "Editing"). Ball and Mendes revised the script twice before being sent to the actors, and two more times before the first reading.
The shooting script features scenes in Angela's car where Ricky and Jane talk about death and beauty; a scene different from the previous version, which sets it as a "big scene on the highway" where three witnesses crash cars and see corpses. The change is a practical decision, because production is late from schedule and they need to cut costs. The schedule takes two days to spend shooting collisions, but only half a day is available. The ball agrees, but only if the scene can keep Ricky's line where he reflects on having seen a homeless woman die: "When you see something like that, it's like God looks right at you, just a second and if you are careful, You can look back. "Jane asked:" And what do you see? " Ricky: "Beautiful." Ball said, "They wanted to cut that scene, they said it was not important, I said, 'You're out of your fucking mind This is one of the most important scenes in the movie!' [...] If there is one line is the heart and soul of this film, that's the line. "Another scene was rewritten to accommodate the loss of the freeway sequence; Set in the schoolyard, it presents a "turning point" for Jane in that she chose to walk home with Ricky instead of going with Angela. At the end of the filming, the script has gone through 10 drafts.
Casting
Mendes has Spacey and Bening in mind to lead from the start, but the DreamWorks executives are not enthusiastic. The studio suggested several alternatives, including Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner and John Travolta to play Lester, and Helen Hunt or Holly Hunter to play Carolyn. Mendes does not want big stars to "burden the film"; he feels Spacey is the right choice based on his performances in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects and Seven , and 1992 Glengarry Glen Ross . Spacey surprised; he said, "I usually play very fast characters, very manipulative and clever. [...] I usually wade in the dark, a kind of dangerous waters.This is a man who lives one step at a time, playing with his instincts. close to me, for what I am, than other parts. "Mendes offered Bening the role of Carolyn without studio approval; although executives were angry at Mendes, in September 1998, DreamWorks had entered into negotiations with Spacey and Bening.
Spacey loosely based Lland's early "schlubby" on Walter Matthau. During the film, Lester's physical rise from mushy to tight; Spacey worked during the filming to improve her body, but because Mendes shot the scene from a chronological order, Spacey varied posture to describe the stages. Prior to filming, Mendes and Spacey analyzed Jack Lemmon's performance in The Apartment (1960), because Mendes wanted Spacey to emulate "the way [Lemmon] moves, the way he looks, the way he is in the office and the way he is a person ordinary and not yet a special person ". Spacey's voicem is a setback to Sunset Boulevard (1950), which is also retrospected by dead characters. Mendes feels it evokes Lester's - and the movie's loneliness. Bening draws a woman from her youth to tell her appearance: "I used to take care of many children, you go to church and see how people present themselves outside, and then be inside their homes and see the difference." Bening and the hairdresser collaborated to create "PTA president coif" hairstyles, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan scrutinized mail order catalogs to further build the Carolyn neighborhood as an "immaculate suburban manor." To help Bening get into the mindset of Carolyn, Mendes delivers music that she believes Carolyn wants to do. She lends Bening the Bobby Darin version of the song "Do not Rain on My Parade", which she enjoys and convinces the director to include it for a scene where Carolyn sings in her car.
For the roles of Jane, Ricky, and Angela, DreamWorks provides Mendes carte blanche . In November 1998, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari had been casted in sections - in Birch's case, despite the fact he was underage for his naked scene. When Birch was 16 years old when he was filming, and thus classified as a minor in the United States, his parents had to approve his short topless scenes in the film. The child labor representative is on set for filming the scene. Bentley overcame competition from top actors under the age of 25 to cast. My 2009 big MyBlood documentary follows Bentley, and several other young actors, before and after he gets the role. To prepare, Mendes provides Bentley with a video camera, telling the actor to record what Ricky will do. Peter Gallagher and Alison Janney served as Buddy Kane and Barbara Fitts after filming began in December 1998. Mendes gave Janney a book of paintings by Edvard Munch. He tells her, "Your character is there." Mendes intercepts Barbara's many dialogues, including the conversation between Colonel Fitts and her, because she feels that what needs to be said about their spouses - humanity and vulnerability - is successfully delivered through a mutual moment of silence. Chris Cooper plays Colonel Fitts, Scott Bakula plays Jim Olmeyer, and Sam Robards plays Jim Berkley. Jim and Jim are deliberately portrayed as the most normal, happy - and boring pair in this movie. Ball's inspiration for figures stems from his thinking after seeing "a bland, boring, heterosexual couple" wearing matching clothes: "I can not wait for the time when gay couples can be just as boring." The ball also includes aspects of a known gay couple that have the same first name.
Mendes insisted on two weeks of practice, even though the session was not as formal as the theater, and the actors could not attend every theater. Some improvisations and suggestions by actors are incorporated into the script. An early scene that showed the Burnham family leaving home to work was put in later to point out the low point Carolyn had accomplished and Lester's relationship. Spacey and Bening worked to create the love Lester and Carolyn had for each other; for example, a scene in which Lester almost teased Carolyn after the couple argued that Lester bought the car initially "very controversial".
Filming
The subject of photography lasted about 50 days from December 14, 1998, to February 1999. American Beauty was filmed on soundstages in Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and at Hancock Park and Brentwood in Los Angeles. The aerial photographs at the beginning and end of the film were taken in Sacramento, California, and many school scenes were shot at South High School in Torrance, California; some additions in the fitness center are high school students. The film is in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in an unknown American city. Production designer Naomi Shohan likened it locally to Evanston, Illinois, but said, "It's not about a place, it's about the archetypes. [...] There's enough environments everywhere, everywhere, the US - the upwardly moving suburbia. " The point is for the setting to reflect the characters, which are also archetypes. Shohan said, "Everything is very tense, and their life is construction." The Burnhams 'family was designed as the opposite of Fitts' - a pure ideal, but lacking in taste and lacking in "inner balance", leading to Carolyn's desire to at least provide the appearance of "perfect American household"; Fitts' family home is described in "excessive darkness [and] symmetry".
Production selects two adjacent properties on Warner's "Blondie Street" Warner backlot for Burnham and Fitts houses. The crew rebuilt houses to combine fake rooms that form the line of sight - between Ricky and Jane's bedroom window, and between Ricky's rooms and Lester's garage. The garage window is specially designed to get a crucial shot towards the end of the film where Col. Fitts - watching from Ricky's bedroom - mistakenly assumes that Lester paid Ricky for sex. Mendes made sure to set the line of sight at the beginning of the film to make the audience feel familiar with the shot. The interior of the house is filmed in the backlot, on location, and on the soundstages when the above shooting is required. The inside of Burnhams' house was shot in a house close to Interstate 405 and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles; the inside of Fitts' house was shot in the neighborhood of Hancock Park. Ricky's bedroom is designed to resemble a cell to show its "monkish" personality, while at the same time mixing with high-tech equipment to reflect its voyeuristic side. Production deliberately minimizes the use of red, because it is an important thematic signature elsewhere. The Burnhams 'house uses a cool blue color, while Fitts' is housed in a "depressed military palette".
The visual style that dominates Mendes is deliberate and composed, with a minimalist design that gives "a rare, almost real - feeling that is bright, crisp, hard, near Magritte-like taking on the American suburbs"; Mendes continued to direct his dressing table to empty the frame. He makes Lester's fantasy scene "more fluid and graceful", and Mendes uses a few steadicams, feeling that stable shots generate more tension. For example, when Mendes uses slow encouragement to Burnhams table, he holds a shot because his training as a theater director teaches him the importance of putting distance between characters. He wants to keep the tension at the scene, so he just cuts when Jane leaves the table. Mendes does use hand-held cameras for scenes where Col. Fitts beat Ricky. Mendes says the camera provides a scene with "kinetic energy [...] off-balance". He also went handheld for a recording of Ricky's camcorder. Mendes took a long time to get Ricky's recording quality to the level he wanted. For recording plastic bags, Mendes uses a wind machine to move bags in the air. The scene takes four times; two by the second unit did not satisfy Mendes, so he shot himself. He felt that the former had no grace, but for a last resort, he changed his location to a brick wall and added leaves to the ground. Mendes was satisfied with the way the wall defines the outline of the bag.
Mendes avoided the use of close-ups, because he believed the technique was too often used; he also quotes Spielberg's suggestion that he should imagine a silhouette audience at the bottom of the camera monitor, to remember that he is filming for display on a 40-foot (10 m) screen. Spielberg - who visited the set several times - also advises Mendes not to worry about costs if he has a "good idea" towards the end of a long work day. Mendes said, "It happened three or four times, and they're all in the movie." Despite Spielberg's support, DreamWorks and Mendes continue to struggle over schedules and budgets, although the studio is slightly annoying with movie content. Spacey, Bening, and Hall work with very less than the usual fare. American Beauty financed DreamWorks $ 15 million to produce, slightly above the projected amount. Mendes is very dissatisfied with the first three days of filming so he gets permission from DreamWorks to reshoot the scenes. He said, "I started with the wrong scene, actually, the comedy scene, and the actors played it too big: [...] it was shot badly, my mistake, bad composition, my mistake, bad costumes, my mistakes [... "and everyone did what I asked, it was all my fault." Realizing that he was a beginner, Mendes drew the Hall experience: "I made a very conscious decision early on, if I did not understand something technically, , without shame, 'I do not understand what you are talking about, please explain it. ' "
Mendes encouraged some improvisation; for example, when Lester masturbates in bed next to Carolyn, the director asks Spacey to improvise some euphemisms to act on each take. Mendes said, "I want it not only because it's funny [...] but because I do not want it to look rehearsed, I want it to look like he's pulling it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is very controlled - I want him to break through." Spacey is obliged, eventually appearing with 35 phrases, but Bening can not always keep a straight face, which means the scene must be shot 10 times. Production uses a small amount of computer-generated imagery. Most of the rose petals in Lester's fantasy are added in postproduction, although there are some real and have wires that hold them digitally removed. When Lester fantasized about Angela in a rose-petal bath, the steam was real, except in a shot overhead. To position the camera, the hole should be cut on the ceiling, where the steam is out; it's even digitally added.
Editing
American Beauty edited by Christopher Greenbury and Tariq Anwar; Greenbury started in position, but had to leave half way through post-production due to scheduling conflicts with Me, Myself and Irene (2000) (where Chris Cooper also starred). Mendes and assistant edited the film for 10 days between appointments. Mendes noticed during editing that the movie was different than he had imagined. He believes he has made a far more bizarre "kaleidoscopic" movie, than...... that comes together in the editing room. Mendes, on the other hand, is interested in emotions and darkness; he started using scores and pictures he meant to throw away to make movies along these lines. In total, it cuts about 30 minutes from the original edits. The opening included a dream in which Lester imagined himself flying over the city. Mendes spent two days filming Spacey against the bluescreen, but removed the sequence because he believed it was too weird - "like the Coen brothers" - and therefore not appropriate for the tone he tried to set. The opening on the final piece reused the scene from the middle of the movie where Jane tells Ricky to kill his father. The scene is to be a revelation to the audience that the couple was not responsible for Lester's death, because the way it was judged and acted made it clear that Jane's request was not serious. However, in the part he used in the opening - and when the full scene was played later - Mendes used Ricky's scores and reactions to abandon the prolonged ambiguity for his mistake. The next shot - the breathtaking view of the environment - was originally intended as a shot plate for a bluescreen effect in a dream sequence.
Mendes spent more time repeating the first 10 minutes of the rest of the films taken together. He tested several versions of the opening; the first edits included a bookend scene where Jane and Ricky were punished for Lester's murder, but Mendes took this out in the final week of editing because he felt they made the film lose its mystery, and because they did not fit in with the redemptive theme that emerged during production. Mendes believes the trial drew the focus of the character and turned the movie "into an episode of NYPD Blue ". Instead, he wanted the end to be "the poetic mixture of dreams and memory and narrative resolution". When Ball first sees complete edits, it is a version with a truncated version of these scenes. He felt that they were so short that they "did not actually register". Mendes and he argue, but Ball is more accepting after Mendes cuts the order entirely; Ball feels that without a scene, the film is more optimistic and has evolved into something that "for all its darkness has a truly romantic heart".
Cinematography
Conrad Hall is not the first choice for director of photography; Mendes believed he was "too old and too experienced" to want the job, and he had been told that the Hall was difficult to work with. Instead, Mendes asked Fred Elmes, who refused the job because he did not like the script. Hall was recommended to Mendes by Tom Cruise, due to the work of Hall on Without Limits Ã, (1998), which Cruise had executives produced. Mendes directed the wife of Nicole Kidman while playing in The Blue Room during preproduction on American Beauty and has made a whole movie storyboard. Hall is engaged for a month during preproduction; his ideas for starting the film began with his first reading of the manuscript, and his subsequent trajectory enabled him to perfect his approach before meeting Mendes. Hall was initially concerned that the audience would not like the characters; he just feels able to identify with them during the exercise, which gives him fresh ideas in his approach to visuals.
Hall's approach is to create peaceful compositions that evoke classicism, as opposed to turbulent scenes on the screen and allow viewers to take action. Hall and Mendes first discussed the mood of the scene, but he was allowed to fire the fire in whatever way he felt necessary. In many cases, Hall first turned on the subject of the scene by "painting" blacks and whites before adding filler light, which he reflected from the beadboard or white card on the ceiling. This approach gives Hall a greater control over the shadows while preserving unobtrusive filler light and dark areas spill free. The hall shoots American Beauty in an aspect ratio of 2.39: 1 in Super 35 format, using Kodak Vision 500T 5279 35 mm film stock. He uses the Super 35 in part because the larger scope allows him to capture elements like pool corners full of petals in a shot above him, creating a frame around Angela inside. He shot the entire movie on the same T-stop (T1.9); given the preference for wide shooting, Hall likes high-speed stocks to allow for smoother lighting effects. He uses Panavision Platinum camera with Primo series and zoom lens. Hall employed Kodak Vision 200T 5274 and EXR 5248 stock for scenes with daytime effects. He had a hard time adjusting to the newly introduced Kodak print output, which, combined with his contrasting lighting style, created a display with too much contrast. Hall contacted Kodak, who sent him a stack of 5279 which was 5% lower than the contrast. Hall uses the 1/8 Tiffen Black ProMist filter for almost every scene, which he says in retrospect is probably not the best choice, since the optical steps required to blow Super 35 for anamorphic release printing causes slight degradation; therefore, diffusion of the filter is not required. When he saw the movie in the theater, Hall felt that the picture was a bit obscure and that he did not use filters, the diffusion of the Super 35-anamorphic conversion would produce images closer to what he initially wanted.
A shot where Lester and Ricky share the joints behind the building comes from a misunderstanding between Hall and Mendes. Mendes asked Hall to prepare a shot when he was not around; Hall assumed the characters would seek privacy, so he put them in a narrow alley between the truck and the building, intending to light from the top of the truck. When Mendes returns, he explains that the characters do not care if they are seen. He moved the truck and Hall had to rethink the lighting; he turned it on from the left, with a great light across the actors, and with a soft glow behind the camera. Hall felt a broad shot that was consequently "working perfectly for the scene tone". Hall made sure to keep the rain, or advice from it, in every shot near the end of the movie. In one shot during Lester's encounter with Angela at Burnhams home, Hall creates a rain effect on a foreground light; in others, he partially ignited the couple through a French window where he had added material to make the rain run slower, intensifying the light (though the outside light power was not realistic for the night scene, Hall felt it was justified due to the strong contrast it produced). For a close-up photo as Lester and Angela move to the couch, Hall tries to contain the rain in the frame, illuminating the window to the ceiling behind Lester. He also uses a rain box to produce rain patterns in which he wants without illuminating the entire room.
Music
Thomas Newman scores recorded in Santa Monica, California. He mainly uses percussion instruments to create moods and rhythms, the inspiration provided by Mendes. Newman "likes pulse, rhythm, and color over melody", making the score more minimalist than he had previously created. He built every cue around "small, repetitive phrases" - often, the only variation through "texture thinning for eight cigarettes". Percussion instruments include tablas, bongos, cymbals, pianos, xylophones, and marimba; also featured are guitars, flutes, and world musical instruments. Newman also uses electronic music and the song "quirkier" uses a more unorthodox method, such as tapping the metal mixing bowl with a finger and using the removed mandolin. Newman believes that scores help move the movie together without disrupting the "moral ambiguity" of the text: "It is a very complicated balancing act in terms of what music works to preserve it."
The soundtrack featured songs by Newman, Bobby Darin, The Who, Free, Eels, The Guess Who, Bill Withers, Betty Carter, Peggy Lee, The Folk Implosion, Gomez and Bob Dylan, as well as two cover versions - The Beatles' Because ", done by Elliott Smith, and Neil Young" Do not Let It Bring You Down ", performed by Annie Lennox. Produced by film music superintendent Chris Douridas, the soundtrack album that was stringed up was released on October 5, 1999, and was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. An album featuring 19 songs from the Newman score was released on January 11, 2000, and won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. Movie Maker considers the score to be one of Newman's best, saying it "[enables] transcendental aspiration of the film." In 2006, the magazine chose the score as one of the 20 important soundtracks that it believes speaks to "the complex and innovative relationship between music and screen storytelling".
Release
Publicity
DreamWorks contracted Amazon.com to create an official website, marking the first time that Amazon has created a special section devoted to a widescreen movie. This website includes overviews, photo galleries, cast and crew filmography, and exclusive interviews with Spacey and Bening. The movie tagline - "take a closer look" - originally comes from cuts posted in Lester's workstation by a set of dressers. DreamWorks runs parallel marketing campaigns and trailers - one aimed at adults, the other in teenagers. Both trailers ended with a poster picture of a girl holding a rose. Reviewing posters from several 1999 films, David Hochman from Entertainment Weekly rated American Beauty very highly, saying it evokes the slogan; he said, "You go back to the poster again and again, thinking, this time you'll find something." DreamWorks does not want to test the movie screen; according to Mendes, the studio was happy with it, but he insisted in one where he could question the audience afterwards. The studio reluctantly agreed and showed the film to a young audience in San Jose, California. Mendes claims the screening runs very well.
Theatrical run
The film premiered in the world on September 8, 1999, at Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles. Three days later, the film appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival. With filmmakers and players present, it is screened at several American universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, New York University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Northwestern.
On September 15, 1999, American Beauty opened to the public in limited release in three cinemas in Los Angeles and three in New York. More theaters were added during the limited run, and on October 1, the film officially entered a broad release with screenings in 706 theaters across North America. The film grossed $ 8,188,587 over the weekend, ranking third at the box office. Viewers surveyed by market research firm CinemaScore give American Beauty an average of "B". The theater count reached a high of 1.528 at the end of the month, before a gradual decline. After the wins of American Beauty ' at the 57th Golden Globe Awards, DreamWorks again expanded its theater presence from the lowest 7 in mid-February, to its highest level of 1,990 in March. The film ended North American theatrical drama on June 4, 2000, after grossing $ 130.1 million.
American Beauty held its European premiere at the London Film Festival on November 18, 1999; in January 2000, it began filtering in areas outside of North America. It debuted in Israel for "potent" returns, and limited releases in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Finland were followed on 21 January. After the January 28 opening in Australia, England, Spain and Norway, American Beauty has received $ 7 million in 12 countries for a total of $ 12.1 million outside of North America. On February 4th, American Beauty debuted in France and Belgium. Expanding to 303 cinemas in the UK, the film was ranked first at the box office with $ 1.7 million. On the weekend of February 18 - following the nomination of eight American Beauty nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards - the film grossed $ 11.7 million out of 21 territories, totaling $ 65.4 million outside of North America. The film has a "dazzling" debut in Hungary, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia and New Zealand.
On February 18, the most successful regions were Britain ($ 15.2 million), Italy ($ 10.8 million), Germany ($ 10.5 million), Australia ($ 6 million), and France ($ 5.3 million). Academy Award nominations mean strong performance continues across the board; The following weekend, American Beauty grossed $ 10.9 million in 27 countries, with strong debuts in Brazil, Mexico and South Korea. Other high points include strong returns in Argentina, Greece and Turkey. On the weekend of March 3, 2000, American Beauty debuted strongly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, marketing traditionally "not receiving this kind of top-tier rates". South Korea's impressive performance continues, with a return of $ 1.2 million after nine days. In total, American Beauty
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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