Cinematography in 'American Beauty'

Director: Sam Mendes
Cinematographer: Conrad Hall

The production design, lighting and visual symbols of 'American beauty' serve to shed insight into the dull and mundane lives of the central characters.

Lester Burnham waking up: 

In this overhead, wide shot, Lester occupies an insignificant, tiny proportion of the frame. The room dominates the shot; it is barely furnished or decorated. There are drawers, two bedside tables with lamps and the walls are completely plain. The lighting here is also important, for Lester remains on the prevailing dark side of the frame. All these aspects combine to shed light into the central character's unexciting life, whereby he is deeply unhappy and frustrated.

Lester Burnham at work: 

The reflection of Lester's face on the computer screen, resembles that he feels mentally entrapped as the columns on the screen symbolically illustrates a jail cell. 

Here Lester is having an interview with his boss. It is immediately notable that the room is largely unfurnished and hardly decorated. A dead plant resides in the corner. The shadows within this shot is also overbearing and largely cover Lester's face. The character also appears to be insignificant as he covers a small proportion of the frame. This shot bears resemblance to the scene of Michael waking up through the choice of production design, lighting and composition, which reinforce Lester's dissatisfaction. 

Family dinner: 

The setting in this scene is attractive; there are lit candles and a vase full of vibrant red roses on the table. However, this juxtaposes with the mood and tone created, as there is tension between the family, whereby their anger and rage is apparent. In this sense the themes of appearance and reality are brought to our attention, whereby the scene brings to light the idea that despite something looking attractive on its onset, what lies beneath can be deeply unpleasant, with the intent to question façades. The camera slowly tracks into the scene, very slowly, leading the audience to the dysfunctional family. 

How this research informed the process: 

This film was useful to analyse due to its similar nature to our screenplay 'Child Eyes'. In 'American Beauty', the characters are dissatisfied members of society, which is similar to our film, whereby the character Michael is largely unfulfilled. Therefore, the film was inspiring in its innovative creations, including production design, symbolism, camera movement, composition and many other elements.