Since it was used in class and I’ve never watched it, I took the opportunity to analyze the second dinner scene from the classic, American Beauty, directed by Sam Mende, where Carolyn, Lester and Jane join for dinner after Lester quits his job.
This somewhat bland couple spices things up with Lester’s most recent unemployment decision and exposes the power struggle of their marriage and the discomfort of their daughter. The relationship of the elevator music in the background is contrasting due to it’s calming nature in an unsettled room filled with tension and pent up aggression. The relationship of the images set the direction in which the story will go especially when you can see how tense Carolyn is after Lester had quit his job, and Lester expresses a bold yet eerie attitude after he made a self discovery and regaining his manhood.
There were 4 major yet simple shots in this scene, a wide shot of all three characters at the table, then 2 mid closeup shots at a 30 degree angle from the center facing the left direction towards Carolyn and then right direction towards Lester, and the last shot is about a little more of ⅓ of the frame closeup to Jane, from the center of the table. The organization of these shots were cleverly placed by including at least two of the dinner candles in the frame at all times at an even eye/body level, showing which direction each character is talking and fulfilling the 180 degree rule across one axis. In this scene, the shots go by whoever is speaking and then it switches to a full wide shot when there is an actual physical movement so the audience can view the reactions of the complete room.
There is no actual place for a “right” cut because the dialogue between Lester and Carolyn are very interactive and intense so shots have to be in a consistent pattern to show their reactions in the fight and the cuts are very seamless from shot to shot to capture the flow of the argument from the beginning to the end.
Great analysis....
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