Timeless and fascinating, American Beauty looks at itself like a bag that flies with the wind: we do not really know how to approach it, we sometimes laugh about it, then we follow with tenderness this beauty so relative and ephemeral. Stories of denial, depression, ideals and beauty, Sam Mendes' masterpiece, tinged with a flamboyant red, is a classic to (re)watch now on Netflix.
American Beauty is almost 20 years old, and yet it has not aged a bit: the masterpiece that launched the career of Sam Mendes (The Rebel Wedding, Skyfall, Spectre) continues to fascinate with its themes and its superbly proportioned staging. The story is simple and effective: Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey, in one of the greatest roles of his career), consumed by a gloomy life covered by the appearances of the typical American neighborhood, has his midlife crisis and fantasizes about his daughter's best friend; the fates of the different characters are intertwined around Lester's depression, to form a film that constantly questions the notions of denial and ideal.
Symbol of fantasy and beauty, the rose is everywhere, in an omnipresence always light of a flamboyant red. A delicate veneer that covers a flagrant denial, all the occurrences of this red are like so many witnesses of the physical and psychological drama that unfolds before our eyes, as indicators of this tragedy announced from Lester's first voice-over monologue. Photograph by Conrad L. Hall (who also signed the image of Butch Cassidy and the Kid or the Paths of Perdition) skillfully captures moments of doubt and insecurity (as with these very wide shots, where the characters find themselves drowned in a background and a life without any consistency) as well as those of fascination and fantasy.She manages to capture this varnish that flakes and breaks, and to sublimate this critique of bourgeois hypocrisy.
American Beauty could have stopped at mere enjoyable satire and followed only this existential crisis; but where the film becomes a masterpiece is when it subtly introduces a mise en abyme by the character of Ricky Fitts. Ricky, presented as the obsessive and confusing neighbor, gradually reveals himself as the bearer of a powerful message and quite different from the one presented so far; by posing beauty as relative, the leading character of Sam Mendes brings essential nuances through this truth of which he is convinced. Ricky questions the ideal; He always places himself on the other side of the red, whether it is that of the fantasized roses or that of the flashing light of his camera. He captures and sees beauty as it presents itself before him, without artifice or illusion, without lies or denial.
In the end, what is American Beauty? Is it the flamboyant and perfect-looking rose? Or the faded one, which reveals all its fragility and its face so ephemeral? The perfect varnish seems to be made to break and reveal the true faces, and the true beauties. But to erase this varnish, you have to know how to take the time, without rushing the chronology, but rather by letting your own nature dance like this bag in the wind, your own beauty blossom.
An inescapable masterpiece, American Beauty is much more than just a dramatic comedy; it is an ode to different beauty, far from the fantasies of youth, and close to a sublime and almost mystical contemplation. To (re)watch without further delay on Netflix.
