American Beauty Opening Scene.

American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey Stars as Lester Burnham.
In class we watched the opening scene of American Beauty and examined Kevin Spacey's character Lester Burnham.

Lester Burnham is a 42 year old man, who is married and has one child: a teenage daughter. He lives in a very stereotypical American neighbourhood, his wife is very uptight and obsessive is her body language and actions. This is a contrast to Lester who is very sedated and subdued in his body language, giving off the impression that he no longer cares about his life. There is no doubt that Lester has succeeded in life as he lives in a nice house and drives an expensive 4x4 car, however in the opening scene we can see that he no longer looks forward to work and has lost his ambition. It is also obvious that he no longer loves his wife, which is mutual, we can see this by the piercing look she gives him as he makes her late. It is also obvious that his sex life is poor, he states in the opening scene that "jerking off" in the shower would be the high point of his day. In conclusion, Lester is having a mid-life crisis, he is unhappy, forgetful and has a defeatist attitude.

During the opening scene we also looked at the mise en scene of the opening scene. I noticed that there was certain colours that were repeated throughout the scene, these colour were red, white and blue - the colours of the American flag.