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Look Closer Into American Beauty (Film Space)
By Clarke Paty

       At the beginning of American Beauty, the main character, Lester Burnham, is unsatisfied with his life. At home, him and his wife, Carol Burnham, hate each other while his adolescent teenage daughter despises them both. At his job, he is stuck doing meaningless work for a media magazine company. Director, Sam Mendez, and cinematographer, Conrad Hall, use flat space in many scenes of the film to better convey the emotions that the characters are feeling throughout the movie.

       Space is used in films to manipulate depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects. These all determine different readings and viewpoints of the film, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements and characters in the diegetic world. American Beauty uses multiple instances of lat space, where the image is staged with very little depth.

       The first dinner scene in American Beauty, where the family is all sitting at the table, is a great example of how ambiguity is created through flat space. The family seems to be enjoying a meal together but the elimination of perspective, converging lines and vanishing points, emphasize on a claustrophobic atmosphere that makes the characters look like they are being crushed against the background:





       Space also elaborates on the emotion that the cinematographer is trying to convey from his understanding of the story. American Beauty has a unique storyline that gives off the impression of an unhappy, unsatisfied family. Flat space adds to that feeling of ambiguity in the dinner scene by leaving us with the question: is the family truly enjoying a meal, or are they all forced into an uncomfortable dinner. It might be obvious just by listening to the characters dialogue but flat space gives off a two-dimensional quality that makes the characters feel like they have nowhere to go.

       The use of flat space is used mainly at the beginning of the film to elaborate on the characters feelings of isolation but this pattern is first broken when the character, Ricky Fitts, is introduced. He begins to sell drugs, film Jane through her bedroom window, and express the idea that everything in life, even the small irrelevant things, are beautiful and taken for granted. Whenever he is on-screen, he is shown in a deeper space with a more focused frame. One example of that is when Ricky and Jane are walking down the long road lined with leafy trees. The funeral cars drive past and it's one of the first times that we see Jane in a wide shot. That scene begins to change the feel of the movie because Jane's world is not opening up since Ricky as entered it. The only moments of where he seems to be in a shallower space would be when he begins to film the girls in Jane's bedroom. In these scenes, the use of his camera’s viewfinder creates flatter space, showing how the girls are both trapped by his paraphilic view.

       Flat space is almost completely eliminated as the film comes to an end. The characters begin to realize the true meaning of beauty and how their initial wants, did not make them truly happy in the end. When Lester dies, the deeper space makes him feel free from the constant crushing, trapped notion of wanting to live that suburban, American lifestyle he dreamt of. Lester's character is displayed throughout the film as a man who just wants to feel worthy. He wants to live a happy life and not feel controlled by his family and his boss who are constantly putting him down. When Lester gets shot in the end, all the characters are seen in shallow space, leaving them all trapped in this isolated world.

       In the end, American Beauty would not have the same claustrophobic feel it has now, without the use of flat space throughout the film. Flat space adds to characters trapped feelings of not achieving what they truly want in life and although viewers don't tend to think twice on film space, it is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of storytelling in film.






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