American Beauty

I thought I would do a blog on 'bad cinema', and I realised that a film I watched two days ago seriously fits the criteria for some deviant behaviour.

Though American Beauty is set against the background of American suburban life, and the whole idea of 'Martha Stewart living', it deals with themes of sexuality, self-liberation, the use of drugs, inappropriate sexual desires, extra-marital affairs, and suppression. This is all as well as the inevitable murder, but I don't want to ruin the end for you.


If you don't want to know much about the plot of the film, I suggest you stop reading, as there be spoilers from now on.


I'm just going to take a look at the relationship between Lester Burnham, and his daughter's teenage friend Angela. Lester lusts after Angela, and often has erotic dreams about her. He masturbates when thinking about her in the marital bed, and his wife notices. When he overhears Angela say that she would 'totally fuck him' if he worked out a bit, he begins to weight-train obsessively. At one point, he uses his daughter's phone to call Angela and then hang up. This continues throughout the film, with Angela deliberately leading Lester on, knowing that he finds her very attractive. This plot-line ends when Lester finds Angela crying, and attempts to seduce her. Unfortunately for him, at the last minute Angela confesses that she is a virgin, and not the promiscuous cheerleader she has been putting on - Lester cannot bring himself to take her innocence, and so his lusting ends. It's important to note that we never find out how old Angela actually is, so whether or not a sexual relationship with her would have been illegal is slightly vague.

The key attraction for Lester is that Angela projects a promiscuous image; in his dreams she is often naked, but covered in rose petals, and one particular dreams shows her in a bath of rose petals. She then says to Lester "I was hoping you'd give me a bath. I'm very, very dirty." This image of Angela being dirty and sexy is what Lester finds the most attractive about her. The illusion is shattered when she confesses that she is still a virgin, and he realises that although she is beautiful, she is not what he wants. It is then that he becomes protective of her, covering nakedness with a blanket.

This plot-line, for me, is very interesting because both Lester's daughter Jane, and Angela herself, know how much that Lester adores Angela. It is the worst kept secret in the whole film, and yet everyone pretends it is not happening. Angela flirts, but never says out right what she knows to be true, and Jane tries to ignore the whole thing because she is so disgusted. However, it is clear that Lester, though entirely overwhelmed by his lust for Angela, is aware that his choice here is amoral. Possibly because he is married, possibly because Angela is just a teenager, he cannot bring himself to have sex with her when he is perfectly able to. He realises it would not be right to take Angela's virginity, and so becomes a father figure to her instead, making her a snack and wrapping her up a blanket. His paternal instincts return.

The Wikipedia page, and the imdb page for American Beauty, in case you want to find out more.

To finish, let's have a video of the first time Lester (Kevin Spacey) sees Angela (Mena Suvari), and the dream that follows.