Hotties.club

American beauty is a 1999 film. An american black comedy-drama film written by alan ball and directed by sam mendes in hotties club his directorial debut. Kevin spacey plays lester burnham, an advertising operator who has a midlife crisis when he falls in love with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by mena suvari. Annette bening plays lester's materialistic wife caroline, and thora birch plays their insecure daughter jane. Starring wes bentley, chris cooper and allison janney. The film has been described by academics as satirizing the way beauty and personal satisfaction are perceived by the american middle class; further analysis focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption.

After participating in california from december 1998 to february 1999, american beauty was produced in north america on september 17, 1999 and received wide recognition from experts and the public. It was the second highest rated american film of the year behind being john malkovich and grossed over 350 million greenbacks worldwide on its $15 million budget. Reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with close attention to mendez, spacey, and ball; criticism tended to focus on the familiarity of the characters and setting. Dreamworks launched a major campaign to boost american beauty's chances of winning the oscars following the controversial snub of saving private ryan (1998) last year.

On 72nd academy awards, the film won five oscars, even for best picture or best director for mendes, best actor for spacey, best great screenplay for ball, and best cinematography for hall. The film was nominated and received numerous other awards and honors, mainly for direction, story and acting.

Story[edit]

Middle age supervisor lester burnham hates his job and is unhappily married to caroline's neurotic and ambitious broker. Their 16-year-old daughter jane hates her adults and provides low self-esteem. Retired american marine colonel frank fitts, his near-catatonic wife barbara, and their teenage son, ricky, move in next door. Ricky documents the reality around him using camcorders, videotaping in his bedroom, and uses his food service earnings as a front for marijuana dealing. A strict subject follower and abusive frank had previously committed ricky to a psychiatric outpatient clinic and sent him to a military academy. Gay couple jim ohlmeyer and jim berkeley, also neighbors of the burnhams, welcome the fitts family. Later, frank reveals his homophobia when he angrily discusses his meeting with ricky.

While dancing at the school basketball game, lester falls in love with jane's friend, angela. Here appear erotic dreams, in which red rose petals are a recurring motif. Caroline begins an affair with married business rival buddy kane. His boss informs lester that he will be fired; lester blackmails him into giving him an indulgent severance package and starts working at a gated restaurant. He buys his dream car, a 1970 pontiac firebird, and starts exercising after he hears angela tease jane that she will have sex with a man who smokes if he improves his physique. He starts smoking marijuana provided by ricky and flirts with angela. The girls' friendship is weakened when jane begins a relationship with ricky, whom angela taunts.

Lester finds out about caroline's infidelity when she and kane order groceries from lester's cafeteria. He reacts with smug satisfaction. Buddy fears a costly divorce and ends the affair, while caroline is both humiliated and frustrated by her lack of professional success. Frank, suspicious of lester and ricky's friendship, finds footage ricky accidentally took of lester lifting weights in the nude and mistakenly concludes that they are having sex. He viciously accuses ricky of prostitution, which ricky falsely confesses to, and goads his father into kicking him out. Carolyn, sitting in her car in despair, pulls a gun from the glove compartment. At home, jane is denied by angela due to her flirting with lester when ricky interrupts her to ask jane to leave with this development in new york. He calls angela ugly, boring and ordinary.

Frank carefully approaches lester, then breaks down and hugs him tearfully. Lester starts comforting frank until frank tries to kiss him.Lester gently pushes him away, saying that the partner misunderstood, and frank goes out into the rain again. Lester finds angela sitting in the dark. He consoles her, telling her that she is beautiful and not at all ordinary. He asks what she wants, and she says that she does not fully represent. She asks him what he intends, which says that he always wanted her. He leads her to the couch and begins to undress, angela confesses her virginity. Lester is stunned, realizing that her visible experience was a veil of innocence that she can't go on. He comforts her when the films share their disappointment. Angela is invited to the bathroom and lester is smiling at the family photo when an unseen figure shoots lester in the back of the head at point-blank range. Ricky and jane find lester's body. Caroline is in her closet, dropping her gun and crying hysterically while hugging lester's clothes. Bloodied, frank returns home wearing surgical gloves, his collection missing a gun.

Lester's closing narration describes the events of his life that play a role. He says that despite such a death, he is happy how there is still so much beauty in the online network.

Cast[edit]

Kevin spacey as lester burnham annette bening as caroline burnhamthora burch as jane burnhamwes bentley as ricky fittsmena suvari as angela hayespeter gallagher as buddy kaneallison janney as barbara fittschris cooper as colonel frank fittsscott bakula as jim ohlmeyersam robards as jim berkeleythemes and score[edit] 

Multiple interpretations[edit]

Scholars and academics have proposed many possible readings of american beauty; film critics also disagree not only on the film's quality, but also on its interpretation. Described by many as a film about "the meaning of life or the 'empty existence of the american suburbs',[4] the film defies categorization even by the filmmakers. Mendes is hesitant, saying that whenever he read the script, he felt like he was ready to tell something else: “a mystery story, a kaleidoscopic journey through the american suburbs, a series of love lines; ... This restriction was about imprisonment, ... Loneliness, [and beauty. It was funny; it was angry, sad.” A satire on such a nuance of what's wrong with american life" that downplays the glorification of beauty. It is more tempting to summarize it as "a portrait of beauty at the beginning of american torment and transgression" and at the same time downplay the scenes of cruelty and fear and ball's distaste for morals. It cannot be summed up with the philosophical statements of lester or ricky on the subject of what life is or how to live. [Nb 1.5] he shows that, in relation to american attractiveness, "it is not mendes and not always ball.[6] mendes thinks that the voice belonged to ball, but even though the writer had "a strong influence on the set,[5] he often had to put up with deviations from his watchful vision,[6] especially those that turned his script's cynical tone into something steeper. Optimistic.[7] booth says that due to "the countless voices invading the mind of the original author," those who interpret american beauty "forgot to find the elusive center." According to booth, the film's true controller is the creative energy "that tens and hundreds of thousands of people put into making it, agreeing and refusing, inserting and cutting."

Mendez called american beauty a ritual film about captivity and prison escape. The monotony of lester's existence is created by his drab, nondescript workplace and featureless clothing.[8] in such scenes, he is very often depicted as being caught in a jar, "repeating rituals that he does not really like." He masturbates near his shower; [10] the shower stall is reminiscent of a prison cell, and the frame remains the champion of several where lester is imprisoned or framed, [8] [9] for example, if he is reflected behind columns of numbers on a computer screen, "limited [and practically crossed out ". Academic and writer jody w. Pennington argues that leicester's train ride is the center of the story. His sexual awakening through a rendezvous with angela remains the leader of several turning points, when he would "[throw off] from his conscience the responsibilities of a comfortable life that he came to despise". After lester shares a joint with ricky, his spirit is released and he begins to rebel against caroline.Altered by ricky's "beautiful and profound confidence", he is convinced that angela is attainable and sees that he must question his "banal, mind-bogglingly materialistic existence in the suburbs"; he gets a job at a diner, which helps him keep busy, in which situations he gets to see a lot of everyday life ahead of him.”[14]

When lester is caught masturbating to caroline, his angry remark about their lack of intimacy - this is the first time he says out loud what he thinks of her. Faced with a challenge and caroline's non-essential investment in others", he tries to "regain a voice in the apartment that [only respects] the voices of mother and daughter".[14] his final turning point comes when he and angela almost have sex;[16] after she confesses her virginity, he no longer thinks of her as a sex object, but still as a daughter.[17] he presses her personally to himself and “turns around”. Mendes called it the most satisfying end to [leicester's] journey that could have been." With these final scenes, mendes intended to show him at the completion of the "mythical quest". After lester gets a beer from the fridge, the camera pans to him, then stops in front of a hallway where he walks "towards his destiny". Starting to work again at a real age, lester reaches completion. As he smiles at the family photo, the camera pans slowly from lester to the kitchen wall, where blood splatters as a gunshot rings out; slow panning reflects the world of his death. His immunity is discovered by jane and ricky. Mendez said that, like ricky puffing into lester's dead eyes, is the film's "climax of the theme": beauty is revealed when least expected.

Like other 1999 us films like fight club, bringing out the dead and magnolia, american beauty encourages viewers to "[live] a more energetic life." [21] the film opposes conformity, but does not deny that people need it and can do it; even gay characters just want to fit in.[22] jim and jim, the burnhams' other neighbors, are a satire of the "bourgeois gay couple" [23] who "[invest in the stunning sameness" that the film criticizes in heterosexual couples. [Nb 2] [24] feminist academic and writer sally r. Munt argues that american beauty uses its "art house" trappings to target its message of inadequacy especially to the middle class—and that this approach is "cliche bourgeois concern; ... The basic premise is that the luxury of gaining an individual self through denial and renunciation is always available to people who are big enough to choose, and yet cunning enough to sympathetically present themselves as a rebel.[12]

Professor roy m. Anker assures that the film's thematic focus is his collaboration with the viewer to "look closer." The opening combines an unfamiliar stance in the burnham neighborhood with lester's narrated confession that this is the last year of his health, forcing audiences to take care of their mortality and the beauty around them. It also sets up a series of puzzles; anker asks: “from what point and from what state is he telling you this story? If he is already dead, why worry about it, what does a person want to tell about his own last year of life? There will be a question. How lester died or will die. Anker believes that the previous scene - jane's conversation with ricky about the possibility of him killing her father - adds more mystery. Professor ann s. Hall disagrees; she will say that by presenting an early solution to the mystery, the film allows viewers to put the package aside "to watch the movie and its philosophical problems." Through this examination of lester's life, rebirth, and death, american beauty satirizes middle-class american notions of meaning, beauty, and satisfaction. Even lester's transformation is due to the possibility of sex with angela; for this reason, he remains "a zealous proponent of the mainstream media's extolling of adult male sexuality as a sensible path to personal integrity." Caroline is also driven by conventional wisdom from her belief in a "beautiful home" of domestic happiness to her auto and garden clothes, caroline's possessions are "an eye-catching american millennial vision of pleasantville or eden." The burnhams do not realize that such measures are "philosophically materialistic and ethically devout consumers" who expect "the beginnings of american beauty" to bring them happiness. Anker proves that they are helpless in the face of embellished economic and intimate stereotypes... And they and their culture have determined for their salvation."[31]

The film presents ricky as his "visionary, ... Spiritual and mystical center.He sees the beauty in the details of everyday life, shoots as much as possible on his mobile, fearing to miss it. He shows jane what he thinks is the most beautiful thing, then he's filming: a plastic bag blown in front of the wall by the wind. He testifies that he caught a period when he realized that there is a whole life behind things”; he feels that sometimes there is so much beauty on earth that i feel like i can't stand it ... And my heart will break in the not too distant future." Anker claims that ricky, looking through "cultural debris", "[grasped] the shining splendor of the created world" in order to see god. By virtue of the film, the burnhams are close to ricky's worldview. Lester gets rid of personal satisfaction only towards the end of the film. On the threshold of contact with angela, he returns to business as soon as she acknowledges her virginity. Suddenly confronted with a child, he will begin to treat the object as if he were a daughter; for all that, lester sees himself, angela, and his own family as "poor and fragile, but wonderful creatures that drugs are." He looks at a photograph of his loved ones in the happiest of times[35] and dies with an epiphany that fills him with “wonder, joy and heartbreaking gratitude”—he finally saw the world for what it looks like[28].

According to patti bellantoni, colors are used symbolically throughout the film,[36] no more than red being an important thematic signature that drives the story and "[defines] the leicester arc." . First seen in dull colors reflecting his passivity, lester surrounds himself in red when he regains his originality. The american beauty rose is repeatedly used as a symbol; when lester fantasizes about angela, she is, as usual, naked and surrounded by rose petals. In these scenes, the rose symbolizes lester's desire for the object. When rose first connects with caroline, it's "the façade of suburban success." Roses are present in absolutely any frame directly in the burnhams' premises, where they mean "a mask that hides a gloomy, ugly reality." Caroline is sure that as long as there are roses, everything is fine. She cuts roses and puts firewood in vases[11], where they adorn her "absurd vision of a fact that guarantees beauty"[31] and try to die[11]. The roses in the vase in the seduction scene between angela and lester symbolize lester and caroline's previous life; the camera zooms in as lester and angela move closer, finally removing the roses and thus caroline is out of frame. Lester's epiphany at the end of the film is expressed by the rain and the use of red to a crescendo that intentionally contrasts with the release lester feels. The regular use of red "lulls [the audience] unconsciously" into getting used to it; consequently, the audience is left unprepared after lester is shot and blood splatters on the wall.[37]

Sexuality and repression[edit]

Pennington confirms that american beauty defines its characters through their sexuality. Lester's attempts to relive his youth are a direct result of his passion for angela,[11] and the health of his relationship with caroline may in part manifest without them having sexual contact. Also sexually frustrated, caroline has an affair that transforms her from a "cold perfectionist" into a more carefree soul who "[sings] happily to jazz in her car." Jane and angela constantly refer to sex through angela's descriptions of her alleged sexual encounters and the way the girls refer to each other. Their nude scenes are used to show their vulnerability. At the conclusion of the film, angela's grip on jane loosens until the only power she has over her friend becomes lester's desire for her. Colonel fitts reacts with disgust to meeting jim and jim; he asks: “why do these fagots absolutely have to poke you in the face? How can they be so shameless?” To which ricky replies, "the problem is the point, dad, they have nothing to be ashamed of." Pennington confirms that colonel fitts' reaction is not homophobic, but "torturous self-examination". ), Together men" (1997), "american psycho" (2000) and "boys don't cry" (1999) "american beauty" "tackles the broader, widely studied issue of masculinity in a crisis" . Professor vincent hausmann shows that by strengthening masculinity "against the threats posed by war, consumerism, and feminist and queer issues," such videos demonstrate the need to "focus or opt-in" to aspects of masculinity "considered 'deviant'." '". Lester's transformation shows that he, and not the woman, has taken the brunt of [not being]" [note 3 and the holder will not tolerate being castrated.[43] lester's attempts to "reinforce traditional masculinity" are contradicted his fatherly duties.While the film portrays lester's return to the role positively, the holder does not become "the over-male figure implicitly celebrated in multi-episode television series like 'fight club'". Hausmann concludes that lester's behavior towards angele is "a misguided but almost necessary step towards making this present a father again." Incest"; [44] a recurring theme in ball's work is his comparison of taboos against incest and homosexuality. Instead of making an open distinction, american beauty looks at how suppressing them can provoke violence. Colonel fitts is so ashamed of his homosexuality that it leads him to kill lester. Ball said, "the film is partly about how homophobia is rooted in fear and repression, and what models are capable of doing." His predilection for his own daughter,[48] that very moment as a colonel. Fitts' suppression manifests itself in an almost sexual discipline from which he controls ricky. Consequently, ricky realizes that he can only harm his father by falsely telling him that he is homosexual, while angela's vulnerability and submission to lester reminds him of his responsibilities and the limits of his tastes. Colonel fitts represents father ball,[49] whose repressed homosexual desires have led to his own misfortune.[50] ball rewrote colonel fitts to delay the disclosure of his homosexuality. A deviation with a shifted opening scene of jane and ricky from the middle of the story. Although the plot covers the first year, the film follows lester in the process of his death. Jacqueline furby will say that the plot "takes ... Not time, or] constantly", citing lester's assertion that life does not flash before his eyes, but "stretches forever like an ocean of time". Furby assures that the tempo of repetition is the basis of the film's structure. For example, the two scenes where the burnhams are inspired by dinner are shot from the same angle. Each image is broadly similar, content with differences in object placement and body language that reflect the shifting dynamics brought on by lester's newfound assertiveness. Another example is a couple of scenes in which jane and ricky film mutually. Ricky films jane from your bedroom window as she removes her bra, and over time the image flips for a similar "voyeuristic and exhibitionistic" scene in which jane films ricky in a moment of vulnerability.[51]

lester's fantasies are highlighted by slow-motion and repetitive footage;[56] mendes uses double and triple cuts in various sequences,[15][57] and the score is reversed to make the audience think he is entering a fantasy. .[58] just one example is the gym scene, lester's first meeting with angela. As the cheerleaders perform their routine between on broadway, lester becomes increasingly obsessed with angela. Time slows down to represent his "voyeuristic hypnosis" and lester begins to think that angela's performance is solely for him. The song "on broadway", traditionally emphasizing the impact of the release, is replaced by discordant percussive music, devoid of melody or sequence. This non-diegetic score is valuable in creating a narrative stasis in the episode;[60] it conveys the time for lester, stretched to an indeterminate length. This effect is compared by stan link to "vertical time", described by composer and music theorist jonathan kramer as music that conveys "a single present, stretched out over a vast duration, a potentially infinite now that is nevertheless felt as an instant". “.[Nb 4] the music is used as a visual cue, so lester and the score shift to angela. The sequence ends with a sudden re-introduction of "on broadway" and teleological time. And complements the subtext. The most obvious use of pop songs "accompanies and gives context" to lester's attempts to regain his youth; reminiscent of how the counterculture of the 1960s fought american repression with the help of music, in addition to drugs, lester begins to smoke cannabis and listen to rock. [Nb 5] mendez's collection of compositions "progresses in the history of american popularized music." Miller says that while some of them are all too familiar, we have an element of parody that "fulfills [the film's] call for the audience to look closer." Towards the end of the film, thomas newman's music becomes more prominent, creating a "disturbing tempo" to match the tension of the visuals. The exception is "don't let it bring you down", which plays during angela lester's seduction. Appropriate at first, his tone clashing as the seduction stops.The lyrics, which refer to "castles on fire", can be seen as a metaphor for lester's take on angela - "american beauty's pink, fantasy-driven exterior" - as she burns to reveal "a timid, small-breasted girl who wants to be beautiful." , Who, like his wife, deliberately developed a false public self.[61]

Production[edit]

Development[edit] Ball began writing american beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus that accompanied the amy fisher trial in 1992.[62] he postponed the performance, deciding that the story did not exist to work on the stage. After spending the next many years writing for television, ball revived the idea in 1997 when he attempted to break into the film industry after several frustrating years writing for the television sitcoms grace under fire and cybill. He joined a united talent agency, where his representative, andrew cannava, suggested that he write a special screenplay to re-introduce himself] to the city as a screenwriter." Ball suggested three ideas to cannava: two conventional soviet comedies, along with american beauty." .[65] while developing the script, ball created another television sitcom, "grow up." He channeled his anger and frustration at having to go along with the demands of the internet in this performance and during his work on grace under the flames and cybill into writing american beauty.[64]

Ball didn't expect it. Sell the script, believing that the person would be more of a calling card, but american beauty caught the interest of several production organizations. Cannava took the script to several producers, including dan jinks and bruce cohen, who turned his cells over to dreamworks. With the help of executives glenn williamson and bob cooper, and steven spielberg as a studio partner, ball was convinced to develop the project at dreamworks; he received assurances from the studio, known at the time for its more traditional fare. - That it won't "smooth [the edges]". [Nb 7] [66] in an unusual move, dreamworks decided not to choose a script; instead, the studio bought it outright in april 1998. ] For $250,000, [71] outselling fox searchlight pictures, october films, metro-goldwyn-mayer and lakeshore entertainment. Dreamworks planned to make the film for 6-8 million bucks.

Jinx and cohen engaged ball throughout the development of the film, including the casting and director's roster. The producers met with about twenty interested directors, some of whom were considered the best at the time. Ball disliked the more pretentious directors because he thought their involvement would increase the money and make dreamworks "worried about the content". After all, the studio offered the film to mike nichols and robert zemeckis; none of which is accepted. That same year, mendes (then a theater director), along with fellow director rob marshall, revived the musical cabaret in new york. Beth swofford of a creative artists agency arranged for mendez to meet with the studio in los angeles to see if the film was being directed. Immediately realized that it was such an unpleasant fact that his application wanted to rig; early in his career, he remained inspired by the way the film paris, texas (1984) presented contemporary america as a mythical landscape, that he saw the same question in american beauty, and the parallels to his own childhood. Mendes later met with spielberg; impressed by mendez oliver's production! And cabaret[63]. Spielberg encouraged him to take care of beauty the american way.[73]

Mendez found that he still needed to convince dreamworks production managers to let him direct.[73] he had already discussed porn with jinx and cohen and felt they were supportive. Ball was also interested; after seeing cabaret, he became impressed with mendez's "sharp visual sense" and thought that he had not made the obvious choice. Ball felt that mendes liked to look under the surface of history, and this talent, in his opinion, would be well suited to the themes of american beauty. Mendez' background also reassured him, due to the fact that the playwright usually plays a prominent role in a theatrical production. After two meetings—the first with cooper, walter parks, and laurie mcdonald,[79] the second with cooper alone[80]—mendez introduced himself to the club.[79] soon the studio approached mendes with an offer to become a director with a minimum salary allowed by the rules of the directors guild of america - $ 150,000. Mendez agreed and later recalled that after taxes and his agent's commission, he earned only $38,000. In june 1998, dreamworks confirmed that it had secured a contract with mendez to direct the film. ...How it gets harder and harder to live a real life when we're surrounded by a world that seems to focus on appearance...Whatever the difference between tonight and [the 1950s], sometimes it's just like a depressingly conformist time...You see so many patients trying to live an inauthentic life and soon they get there and wonder why they're unhappy...I didn't realize it when i sat down to write [american beauty], but such obsessions mean a lot to me."

-Alan ball, 2000[82]

Ball was partly inspired by two encounters with such a bike in the very early 1990s. By eye in 1991-92, ball saw a plastic bag fluttering in the wind near the world supermarket. He watched the bag for five minutes, later saying that it elicited "an unexpected emotional response." In 1992, ball became involved in the media circus surrounding the amy fisher trial. Upon discovering the comic book about the scandal, he was amazed at how quickly it went commercial.[62] he said that he "felt how much the real story was worth, [it was] more positive and much more tragic" than the story presented to the public, [65] and tried to turn this idea into a play. Ball wrote about 40 pages[62] but stopped when he realized the film was going to look cooler[65]. He felt that due to the visual categories and the fact that each character's story was "very personal", it was impossible to mix it up on stage. In this version, all the fundamental characters appeared, but caroline did not stand out too much; jim and jim instead had significantly larger roles. Lester's review of his life is similar to the feelings ball experienced in the mid-30s; like lester, ball gave up his passion to function in the service he hated, for those users the holder didn't respect. The scenes in ricky's house reflect ball's childhood experiences. Ball suspected that such a father was a homosexual, and used a similar idea to create colonel fitts, a man who didn't want the chance to be himself and family." Ball said that the mix of film and drama in the script did not come up intentionally, but came unconsciously from his own perspective on life. He said the juxtaposition produced a sharper contrast, giving each feature more impact than if the whores had appeared separately. [89] at the time of filming, ball had rewritten the scene to the final cut.[90] at first, ball rejected promptings from others to change the script, believing them to be puritans; the final impetus for scene changes came from the then president of dreamworks, hotties.club walter parks. He persuaded ball by pointing out that in greek mythology, the hero "has a moment of epiphany before ... Tragedy occurs." Ball later said that his anger at writing the first draft blinded him to the idea that lester needed to cancel sex with angela in order to complete his emotional journey - to reach redemption. Jinks and cohen asked ball not to change the scene right away, as they felt it was inappropriate to refine the plot before a director was hired. Early drafts also included a memory of colonel fitts's marine service, an episode that unequivocally confirmed his homosexual inclinations. In love with another marine, colonel fitts sees the man die and is about to conclude that he is being punished for the "sin" of homosexuality. Ball removed this sequence because its usage didn't fit with the structure of the rest of the film - kol. Fitts was the only character to have a flashback[93] - and for the reason that it removed the element of surprise from colonel fitts' most recent attack on leicester.[92] ball said he had to write it for his own benefit to see what happened to colonel fitts, although all that remained in later drafts was subtext. 74] he signed a contract to develop a tv show, which is why he had to get a license from his producers to take a year off to be related to american beauty. Ball was on set to rewrite the script and help interpret his script for all but two days of filming. His complex scenes for the books, in which ricky and jane are prosecuted for killing lester after being framed by colonel fitts,[95] were cut in post-production;[65] the screenwriter later felt these scenes were unnecessary, stating that the images were a reflection of him " anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see "editing"). Ball and mendes revised the script twice before it was sent to the actors twice more before the first reading. The script was written between the june 1997 release and the february 1998 release.[96]

In the filming script, there is a scene in angela's car, inside which ricky and jane talk about death and beauty; this scene differed from earlier versions, in which it turned out to be described as "a big scene on the freeway" [97], in which the three witness a car accident and see a corpse.[98] this change was a practical decision as production was behind schedule and they needed to cut costs. Filming of the plane crash was scheduled to take two days, but only half a day was available.[98] ball agreed, but only in that situation if the scene could keep ricky's line, where he reflects on the fact that he once saw a dead homeless woman: "when you see something like that, it seemed that god was looking directly at you, only for a moment. You're careful, you can look back." Jane asks, "what do you see?" Ricky: "beauty." Ball said: “they wanted to cut that scene. They said it didn't matter. I said, "you're out of your mind. This is one of the most important scenes in the movie! ... If any line is the heart and soul of this movie, then that line is." Another scene was rewritten to accommodate the loss of the freeway scene; set in the schoolyard, it is "a turning point for jane, as she prefers to walk home with ricky rather than through angela. At the end of filming, the script went through five drafts.[75]

Casting[edit]

Mendez assumed from the beginning that spacey and bening would be the main characters, but dreamworks executives were unenthusiastic. The studio offered several alternatives, including bruce willis, kevin costner and john travolta as lester (the role was also offered to chevy chase, but he turned it down), while helen hunt or holly hunter appeared. Play caroline. Mendes isn't ready for a big star to "weight the movie"; he felt that spacey was a great option, based on his performances in the 1995 films the usual suspects and seven and 1992's glengarry glen ross. Spacey was surprised; he said, "usually i play characters that are very fast, very manipulative and intelligent... I usually waddle in dark, very treacherous waters. It is a citizen living step by step, playing with his instincts. It's actually much closer to me, to who i am, those other parts." Mendes offered bening the role of caroline without the studio's consent; although executives were upset at mendez's fault, by the fall of 1998 dreamworks had entered into negotiations with spacey and bening. Matthau.[104] over the course of the film, lester's body improves from flabby to fit. Prior to filming, mendes and spacey analyzed jack lemmon's performance in the dwelling (1960), as mendes wanted spacey to imitate "the way [lemmon] moved, the way the drug looked, the way the line-up was in the real office—and it was like he was still a normal person." ". People and meanwhile a special person.”[71] spacey's voice-over is a throwback to sunset boulevard (1950), also narrated in retrospect by a dead character. Mendes felt that this caused lester and the film's loneliness. Bening remembered young ladies from his own youth to talk about his own performance: “i used to constantly look after the child. You went to church and saw how the representatives of humanity are doing outside, and in the end you found yourself inside their house and saw the difference. Bening and the hairdresser collaborated to create the "pta president" hairstyle, while mendes and production designer naomi shohan researched mail-order catalogs to better imagine caroline's "impeccable country estate" setting. To help bening understand caroline's mindset, mendes gave her a single that he thought caroline would like. He lent bening a version of bobby darin's "don't rain on my parade" that she liked and convinced the director to include it in the scene in which carolyn sings in her private car.[107]

Kirsten dunst was offered the role of angela hayes, but this turmoil turned it down. Blanche[111] by november 1998, thora burch, wes bentley, and mena suvari were all cast in the roles of burch, despite being sixteen years old and underage for a brief nude scene her parents had to film. . Approve. Child labor representatives accompanied birch's parents to the set during the filming of the nude scene. Bentley overcame competition from the best mature actors up to the age of 25 to win the role. The 2009 documentary my big break followed bentley and several other young actors before and after he landed the role. In order to be ready, mendez provided bentley with a video camera, telling the actor to film whatever ricky could do. Peter gallagher and allison janney were cast (as buddy kane and barbara fitts) from the start in december 1998. Mendes gave jenny a book of paintings by edvard munch. He said to her, "your character is about there." And vulnerability were successfully conveyed through their shared moments of silence.[119] chris cooper plays colonel frank fitts, scott bakula plays jim ohlmeyer and sam robards plays jim berkeley. Jim and jim were deliberately portrayed as the most normal, happy, and boring soulmate on screen.Ball's inspiration for the characters came from a thought that came to him as soon as he spotted a "bland, boring heterosexual couple" dressed in the same clothes: "i can't wait for a gay family to look this boring." Ball also mentioned aspects of a similarly-named gay couple he knew. In the theatre, and the actors could not arrive at each.[108] several improvisations and initiatives from the actors were included in the plot. An early scene showing the burnhams leaving the apartment for work was inserted later to show the low point that caroline and lester's relationship had reached.[8] spacey and bening worked to create the feeling of love that lester and caroline once felt for each other; for example, the scene in which lester almost seduces caroline after the couple argue about lester's making a car purchase was originally "highly controversial".[121]

Shooting[edit]

Principal photography took about 50 days[122] from december 14, 1998[123] to february 1999[124]. American beauty was filmed at warner bros. In burbank, california, and hancock park and brentwood in los angeles. Atmosphere footage at the beginning and end of the film was filmed in sacramento, california, and many of the school scenes were filmed at south high school in torrance, california; several extras in the gym crowd were students from south high school. The film is set in an upper-middle class neighborhood of an unnamed american town. Production designer naomi shohan compared the stance to evanston, illinois, but said, "the connection is not in the locality, but behind the archetype... The environment was practically everywhere, the us is a mobile suburb." The intention was for the setting to reflect the characters while remaining archetypes. Shohan said: "everyone is very tense, what kind of life is built." The burnham house was designed as the exact opposite of the fitt house: the former was a flawless ideal, but lacking in finesse and complex balance, which led to caroline's desire to at least give it the appearance of an "ideal all-american home." ; The fitt house is depicted in "exaggerated darkness [and] symmetry". .[Nb 9][38] the crew rebuilt the houses to include fake rooms that established a line of sight between ricky and jane's bedroom windows, and between ricky's bedroom and lester's garage.[127] the garage windows were designed specifically to capture the crucial shot towards the end of the movie in which colonel fitts, watching from ricky's bedroom, mistakenly assumes that lester is paying ricky for sex. Mendez took care of what happens to set the line of sight at the beginning of the film so that viewers feel familiar with the shot. The interiors of the houses were filmed in the backyard, on location even on the pavilions, when shots from above were required. Inside the burnham home, a house near interstate 405 and sunset boulevard in los angeles was shot; the inside of the fitt home was shot down to the city's hancock park. Ricky's bedroom was designed as a camera to bring out his "monastic" nature, while paired with high-tech equipment to show off his voyeuristic side. In the production, the use of red is deliberately minimized, because in other countries it was an important thematic signature. The burnham house uses cool blue tones, while the fitt house uses a "depressing military palette". Provided "a sparse, almost surreal feel—a bright, crisp, edgy, almost magritte approach to the american suburb"; mendez constantly ordered his decorators to empty the frame. He made leicester's fantasy scenes "more fluid and graceful", and mendes made minimal use of steadicams, feeling that steady footage created more tension. So when mendes used a slow push to the burnhams' dinner table, he held the shot because his studies as a theater director had taught him the importance of interval with characters. He tried to keep the tension in the scene, so he only passed out when jane left the table. [Nb 10][104] mendez used a handheld camera for the scene in which colonel fitts beats ricky. Mendes said that the camera gave the scene a "kinetic ... Unbalanced energy". He also picked up excerpts from ricky's camcorder footage. It took mendez a long time to get the quality of ricky's footage up to par. To film the plastic bag, mendez used windmills to haul the bag in the air. The scene took four takes; the two second apparatus did not satisfy mendez, so he filmed the scene himself. He felt the first take lacked that finesse, however, in a final attempt he changed the location to the front of the brick row and added leaves to the ground. Mendez was pleased with where the wall defined the shape of the bag.He too mentioned spielberg's advice to present the silhouette of the audience at the bottom of the camera's monitor, in order to assume that it was filmed for display on a 40-foot (10-meter) screen. Spielberg, who visited the set more than once, also advised mendez not to worry about the expense if a "great idea" came up at the end of a long, hard day. Mendes said, "it's been made possible three or four times, and every one of them is on screen."[131] despite spielberg's support, dreamworks and mendes constantly argued over schedule and budget, although the studio interfered little with the film's content.[131] 18] spacey, bening and the antechamber worked for significantly less than their usual rates. 15 million bucks for production, which is slightly more than the planned amount. Mendes was so dissatisfied with his first three days of filming that he ended up expanding from dreamworks to reshoot scenes. Comedy scene. [Nb 11] and the actors played it too much: ...It was badly filmed, my fault, bad composition, my fault, bad costumes, my fault...; And each did exactly what i asked. It was my fault." Realizing that the person was a novice, mendes turned to hall's experience: "at first i made a very conscious decision, if i did not understand anything technically, without embarrassment to say:" i do not understand. I don't understand what you're talking about, please explain.”[71]

Mendez encouraged improvisation; for example, in the case of lester masturbating intimately next to caroline, the director asked spacey to improvise a few euphemisms for use in any other take. Mendez said: “not only did i want the loan because the restriction was fun ... But i didn't want it to look rehearsed. I wanted it to look like he blurted it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is so in control of himself - i wanted him to break through." Spacey agreed, finally coming up with 35 lines, but bening couldn't always keep a straight face, but that meant the scene had to be filmed ten times. The production used very little computer-generated imagery. Most of the rose petals in lester's fantasy were added in post-production,[57] although some of them were accessible and the wires holding them were digitally removed.[133]when lester fantasizes about angela. In the rose petal bath, the steam was real, except for the shot above. To position the camera, a hole had to be cut in the ceiling through which the steam escaped, instead of these formalities, it was added digitally.[15]Editing[edit]

Beauty american was edited by christopher greenbury and tariq anwar; greenbury started out in a proposed position, but was forced to leave early on for post-production because of scheduling conflicts with me, myself, and irene (2000). Mendes and an assistant edited the film for 10 days between appointments [134] during editing, mendes realized that the film was different from what his partner had imagined. He believed he was making a "more whimsical, ... Kaleidoscopic" film, something that had been put together in an editing room. Instead, mendes was drawn to impressions and darkness; he began to use compositions and frames, he intended to abandon them in order to organize the tape in this spirit. In total, he cut about a third of the minutes from his original edit. In the beginning there was a dream in which lester could imagine himself flying over the city. Mendez spent two days filming spacey in front of a blue screen, but deleted the sequence because he thought it was too bizarre - "like a coen brothers movie" - and naturally inappropriate for the tone he was trying to set. At the very beginning of the final cut, a scene from the middle of the film where jane tells ricky to kill her father was reused. This scene was meant to be a revelation to the public that the couple were not responsible for lester's death, as the way she was calculated and acted made it clear that jane's request was not serious. But, in the core part, he used it at the beginning, and if the whole scene plays out later, mendes used the score and ricky's reaction frame to lay out a lingering ambiguity about his guilt. The next shot, an aerial view of the surrounding area, was originally intended to create a blue monitor effect, in a dream sequence. The rest of the movie put together. He tried several versions of the opening;[8] the first cut included scenes in which jane and ricky are accused of lester's murder,[137] but mendes cut the motion pictures in the last week of editing[8] because he felt they were making a film. Loses its mystique,[138] also because the know-how did not correspond to the theme of redemption that arose during the production period. Mendez felt that the court diverted attention from the stories and turned the disc into an episode of nypd blue."Instead of these formalities, he thought the ending to be "a poetic mixture of dream, reminiscence and narrative resolution". When ball first saw the completed cut, it was the cut version of these scenes. He felt that they were so short that they "didn't really go through registration". Mendes and he argued, but ball was more acceptable after mendes completely cut the sequences; ball felt that without the scenes, the film was more upbeat and evolved into something that, despite its publicized darkness, had a truly romantic heart."[95]

Cinematography[edit]

Conrad hall did not leave as the best director of photography; mendes believed he was "too old and overexperienced" to want such a commission, and was told hall was difficult to interact with. Instead, mendes turned to frederick elmes, who didn't want to function because he wasn't interested in the script. Hall was recommended to mendez by tom cruise as a result of hall's work on unhindered (1998), which cruise was executive producing. Mendes directed cruise's then-wife nicole kidman in the play the blue room during pre-production of american beauty and had already storyboarded the entire film. Hall was involved for one month in pre-production; his concepts for lighting the film began with his first reading of the outline, and subsequent passes allowed him to refine his personal approach before partying with mendes. Hall was initially concerned that the audience would not like the characters; he felt able to identify with them only during the rehearsal period of the performing staff, which gave him fresh thoughts about his relationship to visual effects. With turbulent events on the air and give viewers the opportunity to participate more. Hall and mendes first discussed the intended mood of the scene, but he was allowed to light the shot as he saw fit. In most cases, hall first illuminated the subject of the scene by "painting" black and white, and then added fill light, which he reflected off the cardboard or white card on the ceiling. This option gave hall more control over the shadows, while retaining an unobtrusive fill light, and without scattering the dark areas. Hall shot american beauty at a 2.39:1 aspect ratio in super 35 format, mostly on 35mm kodak vision 500t 5279 film. He used super 35 in part because his larger scope allowed him to capture such elements, like the corners of a pool filled with petals in the frame from above, creating a frame around angela inside. He shot all the footage with someone and it's a t-stop (t1.9) theme;[142] when choosing this outfit, consider that hall preferred to shoot at such a wide aperture, hall preferred high-speed footage to provide much thinner lighting effects .[141]

Hall used panavision platinum cameras with commercial primo continuous focal length and zoom lenses. Hall used stock kodak vision 200t 5274 and exr 100t 5248 for scenes with daylight effects. He had a hard time adapting to the recently introduced kodak vision print, which, coupled with his contrasting lighting style, created an overly contrasting look. Hall contacted kodak, who sent him a batch of 5279, which was a "perfect" percentage lower than the others. Hall used a 1/8-strength tiffen black promist filter for nearly every scene, which he says, in retrospect, may not have been a good choice, as the optical steps required to magnify super 35 for his anamorphic printing resulted in a small amount of degradation; therefore, diffusion from the filter was not required. When he spotted the video in the movie theater, hall felt that the image was slightly fuzzy and that if ailing hadn't used a filter, the diffusion from the super 35 anamorphic conversion would have created an image closer to what the player had originally intended.

The shot of lester and ricky drinking marijuana outside the building was due to a misunderstanding between hall and mendez. Mendes asked hall to prepare the shot without it; hall assumed that the characters would seek privacy, which is why he placed the package in the narrow passage between the truck and the building, intending to turn on the light from the top of the truck. When mendes returned, he explained that the characters didn't care if they were seen. He removed the truck and hall had to rethink the lighting; he lit it from the left, with respectable light crossing the performers and soft light behind the camera. Hall felt that the subsequent long shot "wonderfully suited the tone of the scene". Hall took care to keep the rain, or a hint of it, in every frame towards the end of the film.Immediately in the frame during lester's meeting with angela at the burnham house, hall created the effect of rain on the crossfires in the foreground; in another, he partially illuminated the couple through the french windows, for which he added a resource to make the rain fall more slowly, amplifying the light (although the strength of the outside light was unrealistic for a night scene, hall found it justified due to the strong light). The contrasts it creates). For close-ups as lester and angela move to the couch, hall tries to keep the rain in the frame by lighting up the ceiling behind lester through the window. He too used rain boxes to create rain patterns where he wanted without illuminating the whole room. In santa monica, california. He used mostly percussion instruments to sculpt the mood and rhythm inspired by mendes.[144] newman "preferred the pulse, rhythm, and color of the melody", creating a more minimalist soundtrack than he had previously created. He built each line around "small, endlessly repetitive phrases" - often the only variety by "diluting the texture by eight measures". Percussion instruments included tablas, bongos, cymbals, pianos, xylophones, and marimbas; guitars, flute and instruments of foreign singles were also presented. Newman also used electronic songs, and on more whimsical tracks he used more unorthodox methods, including finger-tapping on metal mixing bowls and acquiring an out-of-tune mandolin. Newman felt that the soundtrack helped move the film forward without violating the script's "moral ambiguity": "it was a really delicate balance in terms of what kind of music worked to keep [it]." [144]

Soundtrack includes 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 and two cover versions. - "Because" the beatles performed by elliot smith and "don't let it bring you down" by neil young performed by annie lennox. An abridged soundtrack catalogue, produced by the film's music director chris douridas, was developed on october 5, 1999 and shortly thereafter was nominated for a grammy award for best soundtrack album. A 19-track catalog of newman's music was developed on january 11, 2000, and won a grammy award for best music score. The director considered the score to be some of the most professional for newman, saying that the page "[contributed] to the film's transcendentalist aspirations". In 2006, the magazine selected the music as one of its twenty core soundtracks, which it felt speaks of the "complex and innovative relationship between music and on-screen storytelling". >Publication[edit]

Dreamworks has partnered with amazon.Com to create our official site, marking the first time that amazon has created a dedicated feature film section. The website included an overview, a photo gallery, cast and crew filmographies, and exclusive interviews with spacey and bening. The film's slogan, "look closer," was originally gleaned from a clipping pasted by a set decorator at lester's office. Dreamworks ran parallel marketing campaigns and commercials, one for moms and dads and one for kids. Both trailers ended with a poster of a girl holding a rose.[Nb 12][nb 13][152]

Viewing posters for several of the year's films, entertainment weekly's david hochman praised "american hottie ', stating that it prompted the slogan; he said, "you go back to the poster again, thinking it's on sale right now. At this stage, you'll find something." Dreamworks didn't want to test a movie masterpiece based on mendes quotes, the studio was happy with him, but he insisted that he could ask questions to the public later. The studio reluctantly agreed and screened the film to a young audience in san jose, california. Mendez said the screening was great.[Nb 14][132]

Theatrical screening[edit]

The film had its world premiere on september 8, 1999. , Grauman's egyptian theater in los angeles. 3 days later the film was advertised at the toronto world film festival. In the presence of the filmmakers and performers, the film was screened at several american universities, including california classes, berkeley, new york university, ucla, los angeles, university of texas, austin, university of north carolina at chapel hill. And northwestern university.[155]

On september 15, 1999, american beauty opened to the public in a limited run at three theaters in los angeles and five in new york.[Nb 15][ 158 ] more theaters were added during the limited run,[157] and the film officially hit the big screen on october 1[nb 16], showing it in 706 theaters across north america.[159] the film collected 8,188,587 greenbacks on the weekend, finishing third in real.Audiences polled by research firm cinemascore gave american beauty a "b" rating. After winning american beauty at the 57th golden globe awards, dreamworks again increased its number of theaters from 7 in mid-february[156] to a maximum in 1990 in early spring[157]. The film ended at the north american box office on june 4, 2000, grossing $130.1 million in airtime. 163] in january 2000, such materials for construction purposes began to be shown at each specific site in territories outside north america.[164] it debuted in israel to "powerful" reviews, followed by limited releases in belgium and france, italy, austria, switzerland, the netherlands, and finland on january 21.[166] after the opening weekend on january 28 in australia, the uk, spain and norway, american beauty earned $7 million in 12 countries, for a total of $12.1 million outside north america. On february 4, american beauty debuted in france and belgium. Expanding to 303 theaters in the united kingdom, the film topped the box office from day one with $7 million. On the weekend of february 18, following american beauty's eight nominations for the 72nd academy awards, the film grossed $11.7 million in 21 countries, for a total of $65.4 million outside of north america. The film had "dazzling" debuts in hungary, denmark, the czech republic, slovakia and new zealand. Million), italy ($10.8 million), germany ($10.5 million), australia ($6 million and france ($5.3 million)[169]. American beauty hit 10.9 million greenbacks in 27 countries the following weekend, with strong debuts in brazil, mexico, and south korea.Other highlights include solid earnings in argentina, greece, and turkey. On the weekend of march 3, 2000, american beauty debuted heavily in hong kong, taiwan, and singapore, markets traditionally “immune to such high-end fares.” South korea's impressive performance continued as two or three million dollars were returned in nine days in total american beauty grossed us$130.1 million in north america and us$226.2 million internationally, with us$356.3 million worldwide.Beauty was developed on vhs on may 9, 2000 [173] and on dvd in dts format 24 october 2000 [174]. Before its release in north america on may 9 [175], blockbuster video wanted to purchase hundreds of thousands of additional copies for its "guaranteed title" range, whereby anyone who wanted to rent the film was guaranteed a copy. Blockbuster and dreamworks couldn't agree on a profit-sharing, so blockbuster ordered two-thirds of the number of copies originally planned. Dreamworks produced about a million copies for hire; blockbuster's share was usually around 400,000 of them. In some blockbuster stores only 60 copies were listed,[177] and in others the film was not shown at all, forcing buyers to ask for it.[176][177] the strategy required staff to read a statement explaining the situation to customers; blockbuster claimed something was only "[monitoring] consumer demand" due to declining availability. The blockbuster strategy leaked through may 9th, leading to a 30% increase in orders from other retailers. In its first week of release, american beauty earned $6 million to eight million. This earnings were lower than would be expected if dreamworks and blockbuster had reached an agreement. In its year, scent made $22 million and fight club earned 8 percent to $1 million, although the latter's theatrical performance in north america was only 29 percent more than american beauty. The blockbuster strategy also affected rents; american beauty cost approximately $3.12 compared to $3.40 for films promoted in their entirety by blockbuster. Only 53 percent of the film's distribution came from wholesale stores in its first week, compared to the classic 65 percent. Commentary by mendes and ball and a storyboard presentation with discussion of mendes and hall. In the commentary for the film, mendes refers to the deleted scenes he intended to include in the release. However, this kind of scene is not on the dvd, as he changed his mind after recording the commentary;[179] mendes felt that showing scenes that he had previously chosen not to use would detract from the integrity of the film.[180]

On september 21, 2010, paramount home entertainment released american beauty on blu-ray in paramount's sapphire series mode. Had all the extras from the dvd release and the theatrical trailers were upgraded to hd. ]

American beauty was voted the best film of 1999 by the american press. He received huge praise, just for spacey, mendes and ball.Variety said that "no other film from 1999 has such universal acclaim." Festival spectators.[184] tiff director piers handling said, "american beauty was the main theme of the festival, the most talked about film." Gave the film a positive review with an average rating of 8.2/10. The web resource's critics agreed: "american beauty with a great cast, filled with dark, snarky wit, is a smart and provocative climax of the mainstream hollywood movie of the late 90- x". 84 out of 100 based on 34 critics, the film received "universal acclaim". He praised spacey's "handling of undertones, subtle sarcasm and harsh language" as well as giving lester "genuine feelings". Janet maslin in the new york times said that spacey was the most witty and agile "in the current realities[189]. Roger ebert of the chicago sun-times, who gave the film four stars out of four, specifically credited spacey when he successfully portrayed the kind of person who does reckless and stupid things [though not "throws" himself." Kevin jackson from sight