American Beauty Film Scene Analysis

American Beauty Film Scene Analysis

The scene begins with the camera gradually zooming towards old family photos, giving us time to study each one of them.It is noticeable that in each photograph, each member of the family is smiling and looking happy. After these few individual shots, the camera gradually zooms towards the family eating dinner at the dining table, as though the audience are eavesdropping on them. Jane is represented as a typical teenager because she complains about the 'elevator music' in the background. Instantly, the audience are aware that the family are not happy like they used to be, so a clear contrast has been created. The diegetic sound of the 1950's song 'Bali Hai' playing in the background connotes the mother's old fashioned values and gives us the impression that she misses the past. There is a clear blue, white and red colour scheme, suggesting that they are a typical american family. The table is neatly set and decorated with detail, and we find out that it was the mum that put the effort in. This suggests that she is trying to make an effort with the family, even though things are not going well. She has been represented as a typical mother who wants to try and make things perfect until later when we see her put her head in her hands when she is alone. 

The Director has cleverly used lighting to represent the characters in this scene. It is noticeable that Barbara and Lester are in the dark, suggesting that they are going through a hard time. They have been told to sit as far away from each other as possible to portray the sense that they do not get on. Ironically, the teenager is the head of the table and in the light, representing her as the most stable and confident character. It is worth noting that the director has placed the prop of the flowers in front of the teenager, giving the audience the impression that the roses are the barrier between the couple. This also suggests that Jane is the only thing that is keeping the parents together and therefore without her, the situation would be worse between the couple.

At the dinner table, Barbara's posture is noticeably very good compared to Lester's as he is seen bent over throughout this scene. This represents him as an insecure character who is possibly depressed and unhappy. His emotions are also represented by his clothing - he is wearing very bland and dull clothing which contrasts with Barbara's bright blue silky top (as seen in the image to the right). Also, Jane's outfit is a bright red,white and blue jumper which gives the audience the impression that her emotions are more positive than Lester's. Barbara is represented as a typical mother when her husband makes a sarcastic comment as she overreacts and becomes angry with him. We then see Lester leave the room without commenting back to her, representing him as a weak character. 

The scene then moves to Lester and Jane standing in the kitchen having a conversation. The director uses an over the shoulder shot reverse shot to clearly show the character's emotions. This is effective because it makes the audience feel like they're in the middle of their conversation. There is noticeably a difference in each of the character's makeup as Jane is wearing a bright red lipstick in comparison to Lester who looks very plain and boring. The lighting in the kitchen has been made to look lighter than in the dining room to give the illusion that when Lester and his daughter are alone they get on quite well compared to when the Mother is around. This gives us the impression that family time is not how it used to be according to the happy family photos that we saw at the beginning of the scene. 

We are introduced to an eavesdropper shortly after the two characters enter the kitchen. The director makes the camera look like a typical video camera by making the picture quality lower and more grainy. The slow zoom towards the two characters creates a creepy effect for the audience. Whilst the camera is zooming in, the director has used the sound of high pitched piano notes in order to put the audience on edge and build-up tension. The director has used cross cutting between the man in the garden and the characters in the kitchen to remind the audience that there is someone watching them, making the audience fear for them. The camera cuts to an extreme close up of the intruder's face to represent him as scary and intimidating. As a result, the audience are able to clearly see the determined look on his face. Lighting has effectively been used to enhance the intruder's creepy actions when the screen of his video camera lights up his face in the dark background (as seen in the image below).