We look at the meaning behind the rose imagery of American Beauty.
Works Cited & Consulted:
* Leica, Desmond (Aug 24, 2008). “The Modernization of a Postmodern Humbert: Lolita and American Beauty – Part 1.” Desmondleica. WordPress.
* Fonder, Sarah (Sep 8, 2014). “Fifteen Years Later, ‘American Beauty’ Is Just A Bad, Pretty Movie.” Decider.
* Fretts, Bruce (Mar 15, 2000). “”American Beauty” revives the Lolita syndrome in Hollywood.” Entertainment Weekly.
* Khamis, Mohamed (Dec 11, 2015). “A Comparison Between Lolita and American Beauty.” Voices 360. Blogspot.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:06
Who or what is the real American Beauty according to Sam Mendes film we have to look closer to find out
00:14
One of the first images Mendes presents us with is the perfect red rose
00:19
Cut from its stem an image of growth snapped away from its life source
00:23
Within the film this cut Rose becomes a symbol of false surface beauty with nothing inside
00:29
The Rose is almost always present in the film
00:32
Mendes is careful to include it in key shots
00:35
like when Lester first gets the chance to kiss Angela and even the moment of his death a
00:42
Cliched symbol of romantic love the flower is expensive and sought-after yet commonplace obvious an
00:49
unimaginative choice
00:51
Mendes is bold roses imagery
00:53
repurposes that obvious flower to remind us to look past
00:57
Superficial appearance and avoid being brainwashed by the wrong values the most memorable imagery in American Beauty is used to show what beauty isn’t
01:08
Stuff and it’s become more important to you than living
01:12
The most overt use of the rose in the film is to accompany Lester’s fantasy of sleeping with his teenage daughter
01:18
Jane’s best friend the sexy blonde cheerleader Angela note the symbolism of the word deflowered as Lester fantasizes about
01:25
deflowering the virginal nymph
01:28
American Beauty features thematic echoes of Lolita
01:31
Nabokov story of Humbert Humberts pedophilic obsession with the twelve-year-old Lolita. I’m used to guys drooling over me
01:40
Started when I was about 12
01:42
Lester Burnham whose name is an anagram of Humbert learns Falls for the teenage Angela Hayes whose last name comes from Lolita’s real name
01:50
Dolores haze
01:51
But as the phrase Humbert learned suggests something different ends up happening here
01:56
strangely while the fantasy of Angela is empty and misguided it jump-starts Lester’s real growth by giving him something to want a
02:03
red-blooded desire
02:05
His very typical midlife crisis fantasizing about a younger woman buying a cool car quitting his boring job
02:13
Motivated by a real sense that he’s gone stray
02:16
within his rose fantasy sequences
02:18
The film’s editing uses a technique of repeating the same motion over and over in ever closer shots to emphasize on reality
02:25
This is a technique. You can see in surrealist filmmaking like the work of luis buñuel
02:31
The disruption of the repetition snaps us out of the narrative flow
02:35
Reminding us that what we’re watching isn’t real just as Mendez’s movie hopes to jolt us out of our routine everyday thinking
02:43
By the end Lester has to face that his fantasy is false while the Rose covered Angela looked like his American dream
02:50
The reality is a key. She’s an underage virgin and he’d be taking advantage
02:55
Meanwhile, Angela herself is revealed to be a common red rose insecure insincere and terrified of being ordinary
03:03
Least I’m not ugly
03:07
Yes, you are and
03:09
You’re boring and you’re totally ordinary while its most linked with Angela. The rose is first associated with Carol
03:16
I just love your roses. How do you get them to flourish like this?
03:22
Eggshells America
03:24
Who projects the rosy looking outer life of a happy American woman while inside she’s full of anxiety and frustration?
03:32
Carolyn has lost the spontaneous girl
03:34
She once was and has become a terrified woman obsessed with order and maintaining a certain pruned image of herself
03:40
Carolyn can’t tolerate natural wild growth. She’s trying to live a life exactly like the cut roses in the glass phase
03:48
Carolyn’s advancing age is a meaningful foil to Angela’s youthful beauty
03:52
Carolyn is our warning that if we continue down the path of seeking beauty in common places and
03:57
Satisfaction in material goods. Our flower will fade will become better and disenchanted
04:04
And spill beer on the couch
04:07
So what’s the movie saying real beauty looks like unlike the boring red roses
04:12
Jane and Ricky the self-described freaks are slowly revealed to be the real American Beauty
04:26
This early scene juxtaposes, Angela and Jane here
04:30
Angela lies about being sexually experienced to seem cool Jane tries to imitate
04:34
Angela really don’t need to have some psycho obsessing about me right now
04:38
But she can’t commit because she knows that while Ricky appears creepy. He’s genuine and she’s genuine too
04:45
Jane doesn’t seek attention which is why Ricky’s camera is so interested in her
04:50
Angela projects what she believes to be attractive imagining what others see when they look at her
04:55
She’s overwhelmed by her need to be viewed as beautiful. I mean he didn’t even like
05:02
Real Beauty doesn’t have this craving because it’s inwardly generated not fabricated from the outside end while Angela poses for the camera
05:10
Ricky’s eye and arse is watching Jane
05:14
Ultimately, the film presents a very religious or spiritual idea of what beauty is Ricky even equates beauty with a god-like force
05:22
Yesterday I realized that there is this
05:26
Entire life
05:27
behind things this incredibly
05:31
Benevolent force it’s like God just looking right at you just for a second far from the expensive red rose
05:38
Ricky says the most beautiful thing
05:39
He’s filmed is something people have labelled worthless and repulsive trash the image underlines the movies thesis that suburban middle-class
05:47
America’s values are in the wrong place
05:49
We’ve thrown out what really matters at its core beauty is really about how we look at things. It’s an experience
05:57
The movie suggests there’s a life behind objects from the rose to the garbage bag and these objects reflect or interact with human lives
06:05
By the end the bright red of the Rose becomes the color of blood
06:09
symbolizing life and the vitality were born with
06:12
The omnipresent false rose punctuates the film’s message to remember what’s important in life
06:17
And remember we’re alive as Lester reminds us any day might be our last so make the most of it
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video