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Assignment One: Textual Analysis
Hollywood Cinema
Module C35
Date Due:14/12/2000
Student No. ...
The film American Beauty opens with a shaky camcorder recorded medium close up of a gothic looking teenage girl berating her father, a male voice from behind the camera asks if he should kill the girls father. ... As yet we have no sense of place within the films set location, nevertheless we are able to draw conclusions from the girls accent and appearance along with the home technology being used that the film will be set in white, middle classed, American suburbia. ... In a non diagetic voice over he explains that the small American town we are looking at is where he lives, he is 42 years old and that within twelve months of this opening scene he will be dead,”but of course (he) doesnt know this yet”. ...
The title of the film itself is ambiguous and leaves you asking " what is American beauty ? ... The relationship between Angela and Jane is based upon Janes shallow admiration for Angelas beauty and Angelas constant need for reassurance that she is not ordinary. ... In the fantasy she notices that he has been working out, this highlights the importance that both Lester and Angela place in physical beauty. ... This continues the theme of physical beauty and classes gays as shallow and vain. ... It would be interesting to watch American Beauty from the perspective of one of the other main characters and try to apply this theory to that tale. ... However, his actions before his death and the montage sequence of his memories reveal the true value and beauty he finds in the world. ... The film never answers the question " what is American beauty " but encourages us to question the merits of our conceptions of beauty. ... there is so much beauty in the world, sometimes I feel like Im seeing it all at once.
Approximate Word count = 2118
Approximate Pages = 8.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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