American beauty

American Beauty (titled American Beauty in Spanish America) is a 1999 drama film directed by Sam Mendes, written by Alan Ball and starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari and Chris Cooper. The plot recounts the life of the Burnhams, a dysfunctional family made up of Lester, his wife Carolyn and their teenage daughter Jane, who are related to other characters, including their neighbors, the Fitts family. The film is described by critics as a satire embracing self-gratification, parental love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption. In addition, it covers topics such as the importance given by modern Western societies to appearance and economic success, and how these undermine interpersonal relationships, distorting them and sometimes generating a need to escape. It is in this sense that the protagonist's relationship with Jane's friend is presented.

Ball initially began writing the script with the intention of turning it into a play, partly inspired by the media circus that began around the Amy Fisher trial in 1992. After realizing that the story would not work on stage, he decided to adapt the script based on a film. After several years as a television writer he tried his hand at the film industry with American Beauty . Eventually, the script was modified and adapted, this time with a cynical twist, mostly influenced by the writer's experience in sitcoms. Finally, producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen managed to get DreamWorks studio to buy the script for USD 250,000, a figure that exceeded the offer of other production companies. DreamWorks financed the production with US$15 million and acted as its US distributor. The film marked the feature film debut of filmmaker Sam Mendes, who until then had only directed TV movies and musicals. Spacey was Mendes's first choice to play Lester, despite DreamWorks' insistence on casting better-known actors; Similarly, the studio suggested several actresses to play Carolyn, until the director offered the role to Bening. Photography took place between December 1998 and February 1999. The filming set was located in Burbank and Los Angeles.

It was released in the United States on March 10, 1999, and was received positively by critics and audiences; it was the best-reviewed American film of the year and grossed more than $356 million worldwide. Mainly the aspects of the production were praised, with special emphasis on the director, Spacey and Ball; Critics highlighted the familiarity of the characters and the set design. The film won five Oscars, in the categories of best film, best director, best actor, best original screenplay and best cinematography.

Plot

The film opens with an image from a video camera, showing a teenage girl lying on a bed. She complains about her father, says that he is boring and is ashamed of him. An off voice of a young man, probably the one operating the camera, asks: "Do you want me to kill him?" She thinks about it for a moment and says with a smirk, "Yes...Would you?"

The film picks up with Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a forty-two-year-old Chicago advertising executive and family man. Lester begins to play the narrator, but the Lester on the screen isn't speaking: “In less than a year, I'll be dead. Of course, I still don't know. And in a way, I'm already dead." We soon realize why: his life is not the best. His wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is an ambitious real estate salesperson who cares only about career success ("My company sells an image and it's part of my job to live that image"); their sixteen-year-old daughter Jane (Thora Birch) (the girl with the camera at the beginning of the film) is a typical listless teenager who complains to her father for his lack of support and is considering breast surgery, to lift them up and leave both at the same height. Lester comments of her: “Jane is a typical teenager: angry, insecure and confused. I would like to tell her that she will get over it, but I don't want to lie to her ». Jane and Lester haven't spoken to each other for months. Lester describes himself as a loser, bored, someone easy to forget ("I've lost something, but it's never too late to get it back").

The main cast of the film. From left to right: (Up) Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Mena Suvari and Kevin Spacey. (Down) Annette Bening, Thora Birch and Allison Janney.

You can see a typical day in the life of each of the three characters. Lester starts his day masturbating in the shower. As he says, “This is going to be the best time of the day. Everything will go downhill from here." Lester is later seen at his job, where his boss, Brad Dupree, asks him to write a report outlining his job and his tasks, detailing exactly what his contribution is to the company. Dupree is trying to identify which employees he can get rid of so he can fire them and save the company money. Carolyn, for her part, tries to sell a house to several couples, but is met with rejection after rejection. Lester is inspired to transform himself when he meets Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), his daughter's best friend and classmate, his Jane. Angela is a beautiful, confident, and supposedly promiscuous cheerleader aspiring model who believes "there's nothing worse in life than being common." Angela captivates Lester from the moment he sees her at a routine school dance performance and develops an obsession with her, much to Jane's embarrassment. That same night, Jane sees a young man recording her with her video camera through her bedroom window. Jane, who is not used to receiving attention of this kind, is flattered. Later, when Jane invites Angela to sleep over at her house, Lester overhears Angela tell Jane that she finds her father attractive and that she would "totally make love to him" if he started working out a bit. little bit. Hearing this, Lester immediately sets off for his garage, where he finds old free weights and begins lifting them. Meanwhile, a family consisting of the extremely homophobic and austere Colonel Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper), a member of the United States Marine Corps, an emotionless and possibly depressed man; his wife Barbara (Allison Janney); and his curious and introspective son Ricky (Wes Bentley), move in next door to the Burnhams. Jane begins to notice that Ricky, whom she doesn't know her father, makes money as a marijuana dealer.

Some time later, Carolyn begins an extramarital affair with a rival real-estate salesman, and also, induced by him, decides to start relieving her stress at a shooting range. Lester quits his job, blackmailing his boss with his severance pay and starts working at a new fast food restaurant and Ricky shows Jane a video of a plastic bag "dancing" in the air, which Rick thought the most beautiful thing I had ever recorded. Later, during a heated argument at dinner, Lester finally asserts his dominance over Carolyn at home. On the last day of his life, Lester calmly confronts his wife about his extramarital affair, causing the end of their marriage. Carolyn listens to a self-help tape that convinces her to "refuse to be a victim." She bitterly drives to her house with her gun, intending to confront her husband, believing that he has ruined her life. Lester calls Ricky at his house to get marijuana, raising the suspicions of Colonel Fitts, who is convinced that his son is gay and in a relationship with Lester himself. Consequently, he forces him to leave home, after beating him violently. When Ricky and Jane plan to escape to New York, Angela, who is visiting them, accuses them of being "weird", to which Ricky tells her that she is ugly, that she is ordinary and she knows it. As Rick talks to her mother, telling her that she has no choice but to leave, he says goodbye to her and asks her to take care of her father, Angela bursts into tears on the stairs and Lester comes to comfort her. But before, while he was doing physical exercises, he lifts the door of his garage to an emotionally broken Colonel Fitts, who shows up at his house completely wet in the rain. The colonel hugs him intensely and then pretends to kiss him, thus revealing his sexual condition and being rejected by Lester. Once with her, Lester and Angela get into a sexual approach, which falls apart for her when she reveals that it is, in fact, her first time. Lester can't take her virginity and fatherly makes her a sandwich in the kitchen instead. For the first time in a while, Lester realizes that he is truly happy. As Angela goes to the bathroom, Lester looks at an old family photo of her smiling at her, unaware that a gun is resting on the back of her head, behind her. A shot is heard and the camera, which focuses on the wall, shows how a sudden bloodstain is imprinted on it.

The film ends with a description of Lester's life in pictures before his eyes, interspersed with scenes of his family and others up to the moment of the shot; Ricky, Angela and Jane's reactions to the shot (Ricky observes that Lester died happily), Carolyn crying just as she entered the house repentant for having wished her husband's death and Colonel Fitts returning to his house with his clothes completely bloody and a gun in hand. Looking back on these events from the narrator's point of view, Lester is pleased:

"I guess I could be pretty angry about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay angry when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I contemplate it all at once and overwhelm me. My heart swells like a balloon that's about to explode... but I remember that I should relax and not hold on too much to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I feel nothing but gratitude for every moment of my stupid, insignificant life... They probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but don't worry... someday they'll have it. »

Cast

• Kevin Spacey like Lester Burnham.
• Thora Birch like Jane Burnham.
• Wes Bentley like Ricky Fits.
• Mena Suvari like Angela Hayes.
• Chris Cooper like Colonel Frank Fitts.
• Annette Bening like Carolyn Burnham.
• Peter Gallagher as Buddy Kane.
• Allison Janney like Barbara Fitts.
• Scott Bakula like Jim Ohlmeyer.
• Sam Robards like Jim Berkley.

Soundtrack

The music for American Beauty was composed by Thomas Newman. The film's soundtrack features songs by such popular artists as The Who, The Guess Who, Annie Lennox, Bill Withers, Free, Eels, The Folk Implosion, Gomez and Bob Dylan, The Beatles' cover of the song "Because" played by Elliot Smith.

Criticism

Critical reaction to American Beauty was overwhelmingly positive, beginning as early as three months before the film's release, when New York Times writer Bernard Wainraub wrote a glowing column on the film describing it as "the hottest thing in cinema right now." The column, which came out over the July 4th weekend, gave few details about the film, but noted that it was generating "tremendous noise" around the world. at the Dreamworks studio—the details of how and when the film would be released were still being debated. They also reported that Steven Spielberg (DreamWorks co-founder) said the film was one of the best he had seen in years and that Bening had brought him to tears at an early viewing of the film.

The film opened on September 8, 1999 in Los Angeles, California, and anticipated reviews were uniformly confirmed, praising the cast, writing, cinematography, and direction of Mendes' first film. Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Edward Guthman called it "a dazzling tale of loneliness, desire, and the voids of conformity." Jay Carr for the Boston Globe said “a millennium classic”, the New York Post said “a full-throttle masterpiece”. Among the few critics who expressed negative opinions of the film were J. Hoberman of the Village Voice and Wesley Morris of the San Francisco Examiner, who were critical of the script and direction, but not his performances.

On September 11, it was presented at the Toronto Film Festival where it won the audience award. Aided by tremendously positive reviews, the film grossed $861,531 in its first week in theaters in the United States, despite playing in only 16 theaters. In October, the film was released to a mainstream audience and quickly surpassed the film's estimated budget of $15,000,000. Ultimately, the film earned $356,296,601 worldwide.

Awards

The film dominated the 1999 Oscars, with a total of eight nominations. It also won 82 other awards and was nominated for 63 more.

Oscars

BAFTA Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Other awards

• American Comedy Awards, USA. UU.: American Comedy Award for the most fun actress in a movie (protagonist)
• Australian Film Institute: Award for Best Foreign Film
• BMI Film & TV Awards: BMI Film Music Award
• Bodil Awards: Bodil to the best American film (Bedste amerikanske film)
• Bogey Awards, Germany: Bogey Award
• British Society of Cinematographers: Award for Best Photography

Candidacies

• American Cinema Editors, USA: Eddie to the movie with better editing - Dramatic.
• American Comedy Awards, USA. UU.: American Comedy Award for the funniest movie, funniest actor (protagonist)
• Art Directors Guild: Award of excellence in artistic production
• Blockbuster Entertainment Awards: Blockbuster Entertainment Award to the favorite actress - Drama, favorite cast actor - Drama, favorite cast actress - Drama, favorite protagonist - Drama, favorite novel actress - Newcomer
• Brit Awards: Brit to the best soundtrack
• Chicago Film Critics Association Awards: CFCA Award for Best Assembly, Original Screenplay and Best Actress
• Japanese Academy Awards: Award for Best Foreign Film.