(Criticism of the Chinese Opera Guide and Practice Pen, 2020.10.31)
"American Beauty" depicts a divided family: Lester, a middle-aged man with a boring and boring life, a greedy wife who worships money, and a rebellious daughter Jane. In such a family without warmth, the protagonist Lester felt life boring and boring, until he met his daughter's friend Angela, this beautiful young and sexy girl aroused his most instinctive enthusiasm and desire, Angela Ra became a bright red rose in his boring life. He began to reveal to his wife that he was bored with life. For the first time, he was very happy to be alive and felt that he had time to enjoy the beauty that he had missed. Although he died in the end, at the moment of death, all the highlights of life were reflected in his eyes. Facing his normal and non-discriminatory desires, he was fighting against ordinary life while also saving himself. He understood. The true meaning of roses-the beauty of life.
The beginning of the film shows the whole picture of the entire community. The whole picture is dark and gray. The buildings with separate houses, uniform white walls and brick red roofs, and white fences separate their respective areas. The seemingly elegant and civilized residences are in fact monotonous and repeating. Each house is far apart, and the residents are in their own hands and do not interfere with each other. Leicester is a typical middle class. His house has expensive furniture, elegant decorations, and gorgeous roses, but the main white color makes the house look cold and bleak, and the atmosphere is dull and depressing. A family sits in the dining room to eat. The roses are placed in the center of the dining table. All the furniture and ingredients are fully equipped. But three people in a family sit in the three directions of the dining table. They do not communicate with each other sincerely. There is only indifference and isolation, and life is like them. The color of the home is the same, monotonous and deserted and boring. But when Angela appeared, Leicester's perception of things changed. Angela always carried the color of rose in Leicester's heart. In his sexual fantasy, the white glazed surface was in the well-lit bathroom. The material gleamed under the full sunlight through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The white at this time was a symbol of holiness. He leaned over the bathtub and looked at the carcass of the beautiful girl in the white bathtub, with bright red rose petals scattered all over the whole. The bathtub, this bright white vision is different from the previous white, it is infinitely beautiful and holy. Lester's mood changed. He was immersed in the desire and fantasy for Angela's beauty, which is the beauty that opened up Leicester's "new life".
Roses appeared in many places in the film. When Lester first met Angela, all the dancing girls, including his daughter, were ignored by him. In his eyes, Angela was the only one. The lens gave people a kind of right. Visually, he felt that Angela was doing this dance for him alone. Angela opened the zipper of her clothes, and roses floated out of her chest. It could be seen that Lester was completely affected by this young girl at this time. Fascinated. After that, Lester frequently had fantasies, fantasizing about him and Angela in the two-person world full of red rose petals. Here, the rose not only represents Leicester's desire for sex and his unconcealed restlessness, but also reflects his pursuit of beauty in life. Even though the rose is beautiful, it is very easy to wither, so the rose also symbolizes Les. The beauty that is so desired is fleeting. When Lester finally had close contact with his dream lover, his behavior was unexpected: After he knew that Angela was still a virgin, he maintained Angela's purity and beauty like a father. Because he understood: this rose is something he can't insult lightly. From his pursuit of beauty to the pursuit of human beauty, he found that this girl is not as mature as he thought, but a "child" with many shortcomings and needs to be protected. She just pretends to be loved by many people. Disguise and defend yourself. He realized that there are many children at this age that he didn't know, and he realized his negligence towards his daughter. He was numbly immersed in his own world and never really understood and communicated with his daughter. He also realized that his negligence towards the rose beside him—his wife, the most beautiful thing was always by his side. So far, Lester has completed the transcendence of his life, feelings, thoughts and behaviors.
The film reflects the dark side of people: his wife Caroline represents "material." She maintains a good figure and beautiful appearance. But in her eyes, living in a big house, using expensive furniture, and keeping it clean and tidy is more important than being close to her family. Neighbor Fitz represents "indifference." He is tough and authoritarian, educates his sons on militarization, and always reprimands his children with the attitude of an officer. Angela represents "hypocrisy". She is unwilling to be an ordinary girl, so she brags about her emotional experience and pretends to be a mature and bohemian girl. In such a society full of material, indifference, and hypocrisy, we always hope to create beauty, but in fact, a beautiful humanity and a beautiful life are close to us. Everyone is not perfect, but in fact everyone has a shining point: everyone has love in their heart, and this is the beauty of life. Caroline's dedication and attention to material things are because she wants to create a comfortable and tidy life for her family, Fitz's control of the child is due to his protection of his son, and Angela's hypocrisy is due to her desire for love. The tacit understanding and innocent emotions of Ricky and Jane surpassed the desires of the flesh. The scene of them embracing each other makes people feel that there is a spiritual beauty in this materialistic and disguised world. The white plastic bag dancing in the wind photographed by Ricky symbolizes the life's drift and helplessness, but it unrelentingly dancing in the wind presents a kind of tenacious vitality, an ethereal beauty that transcends everything. (Everyone is beautiful, is it the beauty of life?)
At the end of the film, Lester suddenly realized the beauty of life at the end of his life. He calmly looked at the family photo with a pot of bright red roses next to him. He was full of memories, nostalgia and longing for a good life. He finally knew that there are many beautiful things in the world, but he just turned a blind eye to them because of numbness or madness. In fact, there is no need to try to grasp those beautiful things, because beautiful things will flow through us like rain. It's like the pot of roses in Leicester's home. In fact, she has always been there. She can bring endless beauty and romance to the people around her, but she needs people around her to appreciate her and feel her. In fact, beautiful things have always been around us. In everyone who does not seem to be beautiful, each of us hopes to get the rose in life, and each of us can also become the rose in other people's life.
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