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Look closer. American Beauty is a black, startling look at the nuclear family in suburban America. Lester and Carolyn Burnham are - on the outside - a perfect husband and wife, with a perfect house, in a perfect neighbourhood. But inside, Lester is a powder keg of depression. The cinematography of Conrad L Hall acts as a vehicle for carrying the films plot and its connotations. This essay will cover colour, key lighting, light intensity and the use of lighting in plot. All four are crucial elements to the films success.
The film is cold, grey and blue. Lester's world is one of suffering, and the use of colour conveys that clearly. In the opening scene, we see Lester sprawled in bed, a cool blue filtering in from the window, showing the first light of a cold and unforgiving day. Lester's face is drawn and dull, illustrating the misery raging inside of him. As he peers outside the window, he sees his wife Carolyn gardening wearing a bland grey business outfit inside the clich d white picket fence. But from within this bland exterior, the piercing red of Carolyn's roses radiates colour. Is this beauty? Is this the shining light in Lester's life? As the film progresses, the roses are used a symbol for his fantasies. The object of his desire is seen swimming, bathing and writhing in rich, red-rose petals. Red is sexy, passionate, fiery and dominant. It is everything Lester lacks in his miserable life. But as he begins his transformation, he purchases the hot red sports car he has always wanted a symbol for his new sexual awareness and prowess. The Burnham's house is grey and blue, apart from one bright red door. Although the film itself never really takes on reddish tones, the rich contrast with the films predominantly washed out colours is a feature point in Hall's colour scheme.
Specifically, this scheme has a very important role in terms of art direction and costumes. This is particularly evident in the treatment of the Burnham's neighbours, the Fitts. Colonel Frank Fitts lives with his drab wife and his renegade son Ricky. The interior of their house is particularly plain mostly browns and greys. Ricky's room is sanitarily white, with grey Venetian blinds covering the windows. It is a dull environment, and is complemented by the interesting use of costume colours. Ricky dresses like, Angela Hayes aptly points out, "a bible salesman" being black and white outfit with a grey woollen vest. Ricky's mother has an almost peasant look about her, also dressing in black, white and grey. Her wispy grey hair accentuates her dullness. This lack of colour must therefore be matched by actress Allison Janney, who plays Mrs. Fitts, in the regard that her personality is also bleak and unexciting perhaps even not all there. The Burnham's daughter Jane is a ray of colour in a grey house her room is orange and covered with posters.
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American Beauty can be categorised as a "black" comedy. This in a sense can be taken literally it is a dark film. Issues such as homosexuality, adultery, drug dealing and murder are all pivotal parts of the film. Therefore in order to express itself properly, the film must have bleak, shadowy lighting. Conrad L Hall achieves this by his extended use of low key lighting in a grey/black tone throughout the majority of the film. Such a technique forges the functions of atmosphere, tone and mood. The dinner scenes are excellent examples of this. The room is dark and shadowy, apart from an overhead light that illuminates the table and the centrepiece of red roses. Lester and Carolyn are burdened by darkness with Jane warmly lit from the candles. This represents the division in the household, with the long table separating Lester and Carolyn indicating the distance that has grown between them. Jane is the warmth of the family, and is the only Burnham to be lit in such a way for the majority of the film. In the opening scene, we se Lester sprawled out in bed, a bright crack of cold morning light missing him completely, illustrating where his wife is not. On the journey to the basketball game, Lester is fraught with shadows and darkness. It emulates his mood "…plus I'm missing the James Bond marathon on TNT!" and "She hates me…she hates you too!".
Hard and soft lighting are interchanged throughout American Beauty, and this allows the lighting to draw attention to certain elements of the film. The main example of this variation is seen as the character of Lester develops and increases. At the start of the film, Lester is shot in very soft light and has little contrast. However, as early as the basketball game sees the degree of light on him change, until eventually, his pores, sweat and facial lines are all visible. It is a movement from a flat two-dimensional figure into a colourful three-dimensional presence. It is particularly evident when Angela complements Lester on his arms. We zoom in to see a tanned, rippling bicep with fresh sweat beads dotted up his arm. He has a hard backlight, pushing him forward from the bland kitchen colours. This is in complete difference from the pale, soft Lester from the basketball game. Here, we see his grey facial regrowth and dull, pink lips.
However, it should be recognised that all of these forms of cinematography are essentially designed to allow the story to move along smoothly. Lighting reveals significant story elements that the director and writer are attempting to get across. It effectively tells the story to our subconscious, dictating the ways a certain scene feels and how we should be responding to characters within it. My careful analysis of the cinematography in American Beauty by Conrad L Hall has brought to my attention many issues and ideas of the plot that were previously concealed. Some I have already mentioned, and there are many possibilities in terms of analysing a film so closely. The danger I found was that it was too easy to construe lighting direction into many different connotations and meanings, hence "over-analysing". I've tried to condense those that I found to be particularly obvious and the most meaningful.
I believe that the reason for the film being so successful lies within the complexities and idiosyncrasies of the characters. It is based on this, that I will look at how lighting has transmitted the story through the web of its characters, beginning with Lester.
Lester's fantasy scenes are a feature point of the film and the lighting used in them subtly advances the story. The scenes are snapshots of Lester's perfect world a world where he gets the object of his desire, where colours are vibrant, and hard light brings the characters into animation. The very first encounter with Angela is an ideal example Lester sits flat in the dark audience, until Angela catches his eye. The other dancers disappear, leaving a hard, high key spotlight over her. Lester finds himself alone an angled spotlight illuminating him from the shadowy stands. A close up shows Lester partially lit from above, his eyes and mouth prominent. It provides the first real emotion that we can visually see in Lester. This effect is used cleverly by Hall it early on distinguishes fantasy and reality by separating them into the groups of hard and soft light. The life Lester wants to live is one of hard light and three dimensions but he is stuck in a soft, bland and flat world. As I have already stated, he eventually is lit at the end with real, hard lighting. This indicates that he has fulfilled his transformational arc fantasy becomes reality. What he doesn't realise, is that the fantasy is not quite as he expected!
Carolyn is a fascinating character with many dimensions and a borderline personality disorder. She is incredibly insecure, lining herself up for devastation after hyping herself up too hard "I will sell this house today". As a result, she has a terribly unstable home life. Using the example of the inspection home, it is another mode where Hall reveals more about the characters and story through lighting. Carolyn is lit in space of confidence. Her hair glows from the backlighting, and her face is heavily lit. However, as more and more buyers walk through unsuccessfully, her confidence gradually fades until the final couple leave. When questioned about the "lagoon-like" pool, her face has completely softened, leaving only her torso hard lit. As she closes the vertical blinds on the day, the bright afternoon light contrasts with the soft interior. Carolyn breaks down, the very soft light darkening her features the deterioration of her confidence.
Comparing both Carolyn and Lester in terms of lighting, there is a noticeable pattern Hall is demonstrating the unhappiness in the family. As Carolyn returns home after being at the shooting range, she glows against the bright passing exterior. It is a moment of confidence and power for her. As she returns home to find Lester's sports car, we find that Lester himself is lit a little harder "I rule!" The pattern formed is that the characters are only happy in hard, shadowless light.
Ricky is the most enigmatic strand in the American Beauty web of characters, and the lighting used on him screams this. The very first time we see his face is as he films Lester and Jane from his room. He stands in darkness, lit only by the glow of the camera and the kitchen light, with the reflection burning in his eyes. When he reveals himself to Jane on the front porch, the overhead light acts as a spotlight, lighting only one half of his face. She is initially scared, by is intrigued by his mysteriousness. As she turns around, a smile creeps on to her face as does a tiny amount of light. Ricky's peculiarity is continually illustrated by the darkness surrounding him until the end when he makes the decision to leave his family. In Jane's room, he is lit by a hard side light and forcefully tells Angela how "ordinary" she really is. His satisfaction is also represented by an increase in hard light.
Conrad L. Hall's cinematographic work on American Beauty is profound, but is subtle enough to be masked. I believe that to be the strongpoint of his work he finds it unnecessary to deliberately highlight cinematography in film (perhaps Steven Soderbergh should take lessons). The controlled use of colour, hard and soft lighting and low key lighting adds the professionalism that this film demonstrates. Hall uses all three as vehicles for the twisted story that would lack the punch it displays without such creativity.
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