``American Beauty'' An absurd home drama that erases the definition of ``normal.''

"American Beauty" synopsis

Lester Burnham, an advertising man over 40 years old, and his wife Carolyn, who is full of upward mobility. The distorted The Truth hidden in their home life is gradually revealed. The wife hates her husband, and the daughter Jane despises her father. The company's boss then tells Lester that he will be fired due to restructuring. Lester, fed up with this everyday life, tries to change the direction of his life. However, what awaited Lester in his quest for freedom and happiness was an extremely high price.

Index

• The novelty of the “disappearance” of the traditional family concept
• An absurd production in which he himself ``reveals the ending'' at the beginning.
• Sam Mendes, a theater veteran, creates a sense of “physical” distance.
• “Inner fear” that being crazy is “normal”
• “Changes” in characters actually cause halation

The novelty of the “disappearance” of the traditional family concept

We humans are generally crazy.

A heretical family drama that exposes the ``sickness'' of everyday life.

Family is truly a strange thing. It is also the smallest community, and it is also a group with its own rules, where the world's "common sense" does not apply. Every individual in their family probably has their own rules.

Not just in movies, but in novels, manga, dramas, anime, music, art...``Family'' is a theme that is depicted every day. It may be the oldest genre that has been explored since prehistoric times. The things closest to our lives, the things we can empathize with, and the most difficult to understand. I'm sure humans will never be able to resist the charm of a ``family,'' which is a mixture of love, mistrust, and purity.

``American Beauty'' (1999), which I will be introducing this time, is also a movie about a family. However, the taste is quite different from so-called "family movies." Many family movies are made on the premise of ties = "blood." An easy-to-understand example would be the works of director Hirokazu Kore-eda. The films are composed of blood relatives, such as `` Nobody Knows '' (04), `` And Becomes a Father '' (13), `` Seaside Diary '' (15) , ``Deeper than the Sea '' (16), and ``Shoplifters ' ' (18). It depicts the merits and demerits of a family. These works can be said to be works that start from the obvious premise that families should be good.

However, ``American Beauty'' is not like that. To put it simply, this is a movie that depicts the premise that ``family is nothing.'' In other words, the ``common sense'' that ``families support each other'' has disappeared.

If there is a sense of ``destroying'' common sense, a critical spirit emerges, and paradoxically it becomes an affirmation of the conventional ``family image.'' Examples of this include `` Journey to the Beginning '' (16), which depicts a family living in the forest, ``Brigsby Bear'' (17), which depicts a family living in the forest, `` Brigsby Bear '' (2017), which depicts a family living in the forest, and ``Brigsby Bear'' (17), which depicts a family living in the forest. `` Children Without Existence '' (18), whose main character is a young boy. These are works that take the ``definition'' of family and go against it.

Other films such as Xavier Dolan's ` `It's Only the End of the World '' (2016) and ` `August Family '' (2013), a film adaptation of a famous stage play, depict the sadness of being unable to sever ties with one's family. These are works that show that family is something that cannot be denied, no matter how hard you try. But there is no love in "American Beauty." The traditional concept of family itself is absent from the beginning to the end. Moreover, they are not families under special circumstances like the crime families in Animal Kingdom (10) and El Clan (15). The horror that this is "normal" is plastered all over the screen.

It doesn't look like family, but it's family. Because of this shocking perspective, this film won five awards at the 72nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.

An absurd production in which he himself ``reveals the ending'' at the beginning.