Analysing American Beauty opening sequence

Analysing opening sequence of American Beauty:

The task given to us was to analyse the opening scene of the film American Beauty (click on picture above for opening sequence). We were told to analyse certain aspects from the opening sequence including body language, voice, clothes, mise en scene and the colour scheme, and how all of these connect to Lester Burnham (main character, played by Kevin Spacey).

Immediately, as soon as we first see Lester, we get an immediate look at his body language. Straight away he takes a deep sigh. Now this could be interpreted as the fact that he’s just awoke, but I think that the director included this action as this sort of attitude – almost given up on life, is the same attitude that Lester will have throughout the story. We then see him leaving the house as he sets off to work, and his suitcase then opens, causing all of his work to fall out on to the floor. As he kneels on the floor, we can see that he doesn’t really care about anything anymore, his body language suggest that he doesn’t really care about life anymore.

                As the film starts, we see the neighbourhood that Lester lives in. He then starts to talk over the top as a narrator, to set the scene. Again, we can get an immediate opinion on Lester, as his voice is very plain, boring and monotonous. It doesn’t really vary much in pitch so we as an audience get the idea that he’s really not very exciting, and therefore probably isn’t a great father figure or husband.

                We don’t see much of the clothing that Lester wear’s. Although, what we do see suggests the same general idea that has come across before. Suggesting that he has no personality, and is quite boring. He doesn’t really wear much colour in his clothing, so we can see that he doesn’t really care about what other people think, and he doesn’t really want to express himself as he doesn’t feel the need to do so.

                The mise en scene is a lot more general and is not as specific towards Lester as it’s everything in the picture not just Lester Burnham. The general colour scheme that is included in most screenshots are the colours red, white and blue, as these are the three colours of the American national flag. These colours are repeated throughout the opening sequence, and throughout the rest of the film. Even when we see Lester’s wife for the first time, we can see that the handles of her gardening sheers are blue, the roses she’s cutting up are red, and house behind her is built up of all three colours. Lester even says over the top that the colour of the sheers which match her gardening clogs are not an accident, but this could suggest it’s not an accident that these colours match because of the character but it could be suggesting that they match because of the director’s choice.

                The opening sequence of this film leads us as an audience to assume that during the following film we will expect it to be about Lester, and how he deals with a non-ambitious life. From the opening sequence I have gathered that Lester has accomplished all that he wants to accomplish from life and therefore has no ambitions left. He is defeated, given up on life, almost depressed. Nothing is going right for him, and so the rest of the film will most likely be about something unusual happening to him, and so it will be about how he deals with it.