American Beauty

The props within 'American Beauty'  would suggest the idea of the American Dream (house, car, family etc), with Primary colours
present throughout these scenes- red,white and blue. This is a representation of the 'good old' American country. As well as this the colours are also bland, simplistic and boring. This is present in the bedroom, bathroom and the office, which could reflect the lifestyle choices of the characters. It is evident that this has also been considered in the choices of clothing with Jane and Lester but less with Carolyn, also known as colour wise. The choices made for Lesters clothing might suggest the idea that he feels like he might be dying or he is already dead. In one particular scene the bedroom is dark on Lester's side of the bed, which might implie that Lester has some form of mental health disorder such as depression. Along side this, Roses appear present throughout the film. Jane, the daughter, has roses on her jumper, the mother, Carolyn, is wearing red lipstick and there are roses in the garden. 'American Beauty' is a type of rose which could symbolize the beauty throughout the film. Later on in the film roses are again made present on the table in front of the daughter where she is 'well lit', however this is unlike Lester and Carolyn who are in the shadowsor dull lighting, which might suggest that Jane is the 'light' to Lester and Carolyn's relationship.

The music in 'American Beauty' begins slow, which is already a possible representation of Lester's life, however, the music stops.This could show or help illustrate to us the juxtaposition between home life and work life. The music is also repetitive and monotonous which could be a suggestive link to his life. Although, many might argue that the music is somewhat lighthearted and could be a potential link to the introduction of the family, where they seem much happier.

'Bali Hai' is a song from South Pacific which is played at the dinner table. The music is dated which might that suggest to us that Carolyn has old fashioned values or she might miss how the past use to be. We can make an assumption that the family were much happier before. The music is soft and gentle which juxtaposes the character of Carolyn, the mother. We can infer that her character is powerful and dominant unlike Lester's. The scene then moves onto 'The Boy' who is filming Jane and her dad, he seems out of place as he is filming a young girl in the dark and she doesn't know, this is both odd and unexpected.This could be due to the composition music in the background allowing us to gain this information. The idea that 'The Boy' is filming in the dark could have connotations of mystery or death which could foreshadow later events. The music continuously alters from 'Bail Hai' (diegetic) to non-diegetic (soundtrack), which might suggest that the family are vulnerable to 'The Boy'. What might he do? This creates an enigma as he has 'the look' at Lester- evil ? Murderous?

Lester's characterisation and represention show him to be weak,vulnerable and confused, but a character who is blunt and knows how to take control (work life). At the beginning of the scene Lester is a childlike character, his posture is slumped, he is immature about the way he talks about work and mutters under his breath like a child to his wife, Carolyn. Although his character matures and develops into his adult roles at work when he might be potentially fired.

The Camera is zooming slowly throughout the scene, so slowly that at first we don't even notice it, which might suggest a sense of intrusion on their 'family' meal. When the The boy begins to film Lester and Jane there is a change in film stock. The camera shots changes multiple times from film to video then back to the film again. It also cross cuts between shot-reverse-shot and two shot to show the boys perspective and the conversation between Lester and Jane.  The framing of the scene is also somewhat reminiscent of the Theatre.