Primary Colors Are Not Real

Ever since the realization that suburban life can negatively affect the psychological well-being of an occupant, creators have been trying to communicate this phenomenon through different mediums, such as filmmaking. One film in particular-- American Beauty , by Sam Mendes--uses not only brilliant acting, but cinematic techniques to develop the feeling of nothingness so often found in suburban residents. Throughout the film, our protagonist--Lester Burnham--struggles with a mid-life crisis that ends with astronomical consequences. Not only does Lester have to grapple with his sexual fantasies pertaining to his daughter’s best friend, he must also deal with his family’s descent into chaos. Throughout all of these events, the style of the film changes to match Lester’s internal feelings. In the beginning of the film, the depth within the screen is very flat, but as Lester delves into a mid-life crisis, the space deepens to allow for his personal change and growth, yet at key moments, w...

Sam Mendes’s American Beauty , chronicles the final chapters of Lester Burnham’s life as a man unhappy with his cold and meaningless life, who chooses to break out of his habits and unfulfilling career. To those surrounding Lester, they see his dramatic change as pure insanity while he sees it as the best way to live his life. As the audience, we perceive this change as the people around him would at first, but then slowly grow to understand the individual humanity of Lester Burnham. To signify this change in understanding visually, Sam Mendes and cinematographer Conrad Hall gradually transform the flat space objective shot design into more of a subjective film space over the course of the film to accentuate it’s main theme of beauty being all about perspective.   In the beginning of the film Lester is extremely disillusioned with suburban and corporate lifestyle. During this portion of the film the shot design is built with flat-space and surface division. This sta...

Written By: Ella Stone In the film American Beauty, we get insight into a dysfunctional all American family. Lester, Carolyn, and Jane Burnham appear to be the model family from the outside, but the truth is that they have extremely unhealthy relationships with one another. These unhealthy relationships are made apparent by the actions of the three Burnhams over the course of the film but are also brilliantly shown by the cinematography. Specifically, the use of shallow and divided space is used to highlight distant relationships of the Burnham Family. In this kitchen scene, the use of shallow space and surface division shows the emotional distance between Lester, Carolyn, and Jane Burnham. In this scene, the Burnham family is eating breakfast before work and school, and Jane is asking her mother if her friend can stay the night. The moment is tense because of Lester’s strange obsession with Jane’s friend, and because of the conflict that Carolyn and Lester are in. The use of spac...

Ted Kakasenko Film Aesthetics 10/29/18 Deep Space in Touch of Evil In Orson Welles’ 1958 film, Touch of Evil, follows a Mexican drug enforcement agent by the name of Miguel Vargas as he investigates into potentially corrupt police captain, Hank Quinlan. Therefore, corruption is a very prominent theme in this film, and the audience learns to not trust everything for what it seems to be. In many scenes of the film, an action will be taking place on one part of the screen while different characters are in the background doing something entirely different. To complement this, Orson Welles uses deep space in the film’s cinematography to show each scene from multiple perspectives. The first example of this can be seen at the beginning of the film, which is one single tracking shot of a bomb being planted in the trunk of a car, and two passengers entering shortly after. As the car drives down the street, it pans into a tracking shot of Vargas walking with his wife down a near...

Flat Space in Ordinary People By: Will Singer Robert Redford’s Ordinary People tells the story of the Jarrett’s, a Chicago suburban family, being torn apart by the death of one of the sons, Bucky, in a boating accident. The audience follows Conrad, the family’s other son, as he attempts to acclimate to life after being released from a mental health hospital due to a suicide attempt after the incident. He visits Dr. Tyrone Berger to help him through these issues, as encouraged by his father, Calvin. Conrad’s mother, Beth, is much more distant than Calvin, but still grieves in her own ways. Despite this, the family and the people around them appear emotionally shallow, and Redford uses flat space to accentuate this throughout the film. One use of flat space comes about halfway through the flim when Calvin goes to Dr. Berger’s office and realizes he’s there to talk about himself rather than Conrad. Afterwards, Calvin goes back home and has a conversation with Beth in the garage. C...

Unconventional Beauty The film American Beauty directed by Sam Mendes starring Kevin Spacey is the film that deals with the perception of beauty and dives into the opposing idea of ‘Beauty is everything’ and ‘Everything is the beauty.’ The director uses many different aspects of spaces to support this theme as well as constructing an environment around each character to externalized their feelings and perspective on life and beauty. Opening with a shallow bird’s eyes view of Lester in his bed. It makes Lester look like they are being crushed against the background. After having met Angela, we see Lester in bed with the same bird’s eyes view again. The director subtly creates the illusion of off-screen space, by having rose petals fall from above. The same flat space is now no longer as flat with the help of perpendicular visual movement. The sequence symbolizes how Angela has opened up a new door for him. To him, she is a light shining through a small hole in a dark cave. This ma...

Eve Robitshek Film Aesthetics 29 October 2018 Surface Division in American Beauty      The film American Beauty is set in a suburban neighborhood, where sales worker Lester Burnham becomes disillusioned with life and strives for his life. As he begins to experience new things, his wife and daughter also endure changes that affect their family greatly. In the film, windows are the most prevalent way that this is shown. Through the window panes, it is visible to view both sides of the picture, but the glass physically and emotionally separates them. American Beauty deals with themes of detachment, and the use of windows furthers this notion.       Right off the bat, the theme of separation occurs. It opens on Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey, a lonely man stuck in a life he does not want to live. The film begins with Lester narrating his horrible life. The scene then cuts to Lester, watching his wife interact with his neighbors outside. In the y...