Un padre de clase media sexualmente frustrado sufre una crisis de los 40 tras enamorarse de la mejor amiga de su hija.Un padre de clase media sexualmente frustrado sufre una crisis de los 40 tras enamorarse de la mejor amiga de su hija.Un padre de clase media sexualmente frustrado sufre una crisis de los 40 tras enamorarse de la mejor amiga de su hija.
- Ganó 5 premios Óscar
- 112 premios y 102 nominaciones en total
Oscars Best Picture Winners, Ranked
Oscars Best Picture Winners, Ranked
Argumento
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- CuriosidadesDirector Sam Mendes designed the two girls' look to change over the course of the film, with Thora Birch gradually using less makeup and Mena Suvari gradually using more, to emphasize his view of their shifting perceptions of themselves.
- PifiasWhen Jane and Angela are outside talking to Ricky at school, Angela's cigarette keeps growing and shrinking throughout the conversation.
- Citas
[last lines]
Lester Burnham: [narrating] I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined our street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.
- Créditos adicionalesThe end credits gives thanks to the Donmar Warehouse in London and Dr. Bill and Alice. This is a reference by Sam Mendes to the characters played by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Mendes directed Kidman in The Blue Room, which is a play performed at the Donmar Warehouse.
- Versiones alternativasSome TV versions deleted most language and explicit content to maintain a clean TV-14 rating.
- ConexionesEdited into Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003)
- Banda sonoraBecause
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Performed by Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith appears courtesy of DreamWorks Records
Having seen "Happiness" only recently, I could not help but draw comparisons: both films centre around a microcosm of society in which the people, in their own unique way, all strive to be successful or simply 'happy'. But here the similarities end: the characters in "Happiness" undergo a self-realisation process through which they become increasingly aware of their meaningless existence, and go on to wallow in their own depravity. "Happiness" shows no signs of redemption; whereas in "American Beauty" the audience is offered a sense of hope, of salvation, though the characters must endure a similar fate, or more accurately, they must endure the way of life in which they are trapped.
The pivotal character upon which this theme centres, is the father Lester, played impeccably by Kevin Spacey. He is presented to us as a bit of a loser who plays the subjugated figure in the home and at work. He appears resigned to an unhappy life in which he is treated badly by his wife and daughter and his boss at work. Seemingly beyond redemption, Lester transforms from being a loser.
Mendes portrays this transformation admirably well: he shows Lester on his 'path to enlightenment' pushed up against a grim background of suburbanite existence. These early scenes are well balanced, forming a steady rhythm of TV commercial-like vignettes which prove very comical, if at times unsettling. As Lester reflects in the film: "My life is like a commercial". And how this rings true: like in "Happiness", all the characters hide underneath this veneer of normality and respectability, yet they are all revealed to be nothing but the opposite: depressed, depraved and desperate.
Lester's wife, played by Annette Benning, is the most success-driven character in the story which renders her the most hopeless in the film's tone of moral conviction. "In order to be successful in life one must project the appearance of success" is the maxim she adopts from the 'king' of real estate, Buddy King. It is a phrase which resonates throughout the film: for Benning's pawn, life is all about keeping-up appearances. This is where Lester differs from her: his emancipation is enabled by him discarding the constraints of 'normal life' and following what his heart desires.
Lester is the catalyst in this narrative in which the ancillary characters either follow suit (as does his daughter and Ricky) or pay the price (as does his wife and the Colonel). The irony inherent in this film, and it grows with resonance as the film draws to a conclusion, is that the only character who truly becomes free must sacrifice everything in order to achieve it. Yet it is through his sacrifice that he is able to afford the surviving characters a glimpse of hope in life.
This film left me gasping for air: its hyper-realism conveys, at the same time, a portrait of the suburban comedy, a jolting-shock of realisation, and a cathartic sense of hope. Mendes depicts a certain people who, to varying degrees, all strive for a certain 'American Dream', yet so few actually attain it. Though whilst one may have difficulty with tagging this film with the 'feel good' label, the beauty of "American Beauty" is that it sits half-way between a desperate cry for help and a reassuring sense of happiness and fulfilment and that is cinema at its best.
- ryan_lynch
- 25 feb 2000
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Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Sitio oficial
- Idioma
- Títulos en diferentes países
- American beauty
- Localizaciones del rodaje
- Sacramento, California, Estados Unidos(aerial shots)
- Empresas productoras
- Ver más compañías en los créditos en IMDbPro
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- 15.000.000 US$ (estimación)
- Recaudación en Estados Unidos y Canadá
- 130.096.601 US$
- Fin de semana de estreno en EE. UU. y Canadá
- 861.531 US$
- 19 sept 1999
- Recaudación en todo el mundo
- 356.296.601 US$
- Duración2 horas 2 minutos
- Color
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 2.39 : 1