3467603
Description
Flashcards by Jess Boylan, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Jess Boylan
about 9 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Director | Sam Mendes |
| Rene Magritte - the human condition (1933). name attributed to 2 paintings depicting a similar theme. in Ricky's footage we are seeing through something else, as in Rene's paintings. seeing reality in a new lens | |
| Rene Margritte importance to American Beauty | Like Rene's paintings, american beauty twists life's fragile goals and institutionalized concepts that we are intent on having. both Rene and American beauty attempt to challenge traditional perceptions of things & ideas |
| Main theme and film's tagline | Look closer -(facades, reflections, images) |
| the american beauty rose | title of film refers specifically to a breed of rose that is sold in its millions in USA, associated w/ valentines day. sold in millions, plastic wrapping, flawless. no scent, no soul - symbolic for their lives |
| written by | Alan Ball |
| satire | satire is a film that ridicules. american beauty satires perceptions of family life, of business, of consumerism, of role expectations |
| Ricky's quote about the plastic bag video. he craves a connection with Jane because he knows they're both outsiders | "this bag was just dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever" |
| audiences are given two versions of beauty, two attempts at wholeness | -the american beauty rose (carolyns rose, made from eggshells and miracle-Gro, as she tells the neighbor jim) -ricky's plastic bag |
| why does jane take her top off for Ricky | soon after viewing the plastic bag on tape, jane is standing in front of her window for Ricky who is filming and begins to take her shirt off. soundtrack plays same haunting music as was played when watching bag video. it is not sexual. she is not angela, he is not lusty lester. she is inviting him to 'look closer', to see the same fragile beauty as the plastic bag |
| Carolyn and Angela are different types of the America rose Beauty | carolyns temptation is materialism (to do something - to grow american beauty roses) -angelas temptation is fame (to be someone - to be an american rose) |
| hebrew quote from the bible to open essay with | "this is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated" |
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