As much as I do love amarican beauty and think its one of the most lyrical films I have seen you can tell that a gay man wrote it. Lester really seems to get off on his visualisations, but no straight man would ever be arosed by something as soft focused as this. At times he even seems to idealise her, but only because he believes she is promiscuous, then he finds out she is a virgin and its different? Its the old wives, daughters and whores dichotomy again, but comparatively well done.
@BelatedCommiseration Not really, roses symbolise passion and red can symbolise lust. When he finds out she is a virgin (whoops spoiler? :L). He 'sees' her innocence and acts more like a father figure. i think that it could be said that he is idealising her as a dignified woman as using roses is a more mature thing to do specially in the teens...
@Cheesestring546 Hmmm...but lets be honest you can't get anymore cliched than roses. No grown man thinks in terms of roses when he thinks about sex. Don't get me wrong, it is treated in an interesting way (which may be Sam Mendes input more than anyone else) but it is still either a rather lazy idea or a hopelessly idealised one. It just seems like Lesters reaction to Angela throughout is rather a childish one at times. Where the movie really takes off is in its meditations about death.
" ... è la cosa piu' strana. Mi sento come se fossi stato in coma per circa 20 anni. E mi fossi svegliato solo ora ..."
Asterix77MI 1 month ago
As much as I do love amarican beauty and think its one of the most lyrical films I have seen you can tell that a gay man wrote it. Lester really seems to get off on his visualisations, but no straight man would ever be arosed by something as soft focused as this. At times he even seems to idealise her, but only because he believes she is promiscuous, then he finds out she is a virgin and its different? Its the old wives, daughters and whores dichotomy again, but comparatively well done.
BelatedCommiseration 4 months ago
@BelatedCommiseration Not really, roses symbolise passion and red can symbolise lust. When he finds out she is a virgin (whoops spoiler? :L). He 'sees' her innocence and acts more like a father figure. i think that it could be said that he is idealising her as a dignified woman as using roses is a more mature thing to do specially in the teens...
Cheesestring546 3 months ago
@Cheesestring546 Hmmm...but lets be honest you can't get anymore cliched than roses. No grown man thinks in terms of roses when he thinks about sex. Don't get me wrong, it is treated in an interesting way (which may be Sam Mendes input more than anyone else) but it is still either a rather lazy idea or a hopelessly idealised one. It just seems like Lesters reaction to Angela throughout is rather a childish one at times. Where the movie really takes off is in its meditations about death.
BelatedCommiseration 3 months ago
This is one of the best (if not THE best) movie scene ever!
lylymad 4 months ago
Spectaaacular!
pedro7g5 11 months ago 11