American Beauty

In the opening sequence to Sam Mendes’s ‘American Beauty’ we learn a lot about the narrative, theme and subject of the film. His wife hates him and his daughter regards him being incompetent We also learn that Kevin Spacey’ character ‘Lester Burnham’ is the stories protagonist and the use of his narration over the top of the opening scenes further backs up this point, it’s almost like he is writing a diary entry. The very first scene foreshadows what might later happen in the film, with what we learn to be his daughter ‘Jade’ saying how “someone should put him out of his misery” and then a boy says “Do you want me to kill him?” the way he then says in the establishing shot about how within a year he would be dead indicates they could be something to do with his demise.

The use of and establishing shot with his narration in a very monotone and dull voice gives us the audience an indication to his life and mood and then the way he says about his life, where he lives and how in over a year he would be dead. The use of music within the establishing shot is very repetitive

The film also uses montage and continuity editing to create a greater sense of the passing of time and the illusion that he lives a very slow life and one which doesn’t contain much interest or excitement, the use of this technique makes the scene move quicker but the regimented and organised fashion of it has connotations of a slow and boring life with little interest. The way lighting in the bedroom scene also has connotations of how miserable his life is. His half of the bed is darker and the props make his side closed off and more bleak, in comparison to the other side of the bed and room which is brighter and more open. This has connotations of him being trapped almost within his life. Then the way he links back to what he said in the establishing shot about being dead within a year but then says how is basically dead already.

The image of the rose is very important to the theme and his mood. The usual connotations of a rose are love and romance but in this shot his wife is cutting it away, we could view the rose as being Lester or his marriage and how it is slowing dying. The fact that is also wearing gloves to shield her from the thorns

could also indicate on how she doesn’t really care for Lester anymore. The reason a red rose could’ve been used is because of the strong connotations which surround it