Sam Mende’s film American Beauty takes place in a boring
monotonous suburb. It is fitting then that the film features so much repetition.
The first scenes are almost all repeated later in the film with a different
twist on them. For instance, the family
is seen at the dinner table in the beginning eating quietly and the same shot
with the exact same framing comes up later in the film but this time they get
into a huge argument that ends with plates being thrown against the wall.
The small differences in these scenes speak volumes.
Lester’s clothing is more relaxed in the second scene, he is drinking a beer,
not wine, the red roses on the table have been replaced by an empty bowl. These
two shots side by side tell the whole story, even though they are essentially
the same basic shot.
Another place repetition comes in is in Lester’s fantasies
about Angela in which jump cuts and repetition of shots establish these
sequences as existing only in Lester’s mind. The music is similarly repetitive
with percussive rhythms that repeat over and over. These sequences also repeat
several times in the film, notably scenes in which Angela is covered in red
roses or has red roses coming out of her etc. as seen in the video below, which
illustrates all of these points.
The repetition in this film serves to both establish the
boring, sameness of life in an American suburb as well as to show the
excitement of Lester’s voyeuristic fantasies.
