Monday 8 September 2014

Representation of Lester Burnham

Lester Burnham is  a main character in the film american beauty which was released in 1999.

My first impressions of him from the film is that he has no content with his life, i get this impression from the way he acts. He has no  confidence in him self and doughty him self also he has a poor posture and sloughs which shows he is lazy and not proud of himself. Another thing is that he seems to dislike his wife and talks about her in a negative way, it gives the impression that he is in a loveless relationship with no sex life either as there is a seen of him jerking himself of in the shower which most middle aged men would not do if they have a wife. He does not seem to be respected by his family as they seem to be embarrassed and moan at him, there is a scene where he drops his stuff on the floor and his wife is moaning at him in a manly posture, this seems that theres been a role switch and his wife is more the husband and Lester is the wife, also his wife drives the car in the family when normally it would be the man. His daughter seems to be embarrassed by him as there is a scene were he is asleep in the back of the car and he's daughter seems disgraced about him and he is not a good farther figure for her to look up to.
 Lester's life is very boring and dull and he says that the best part of the day is jerking of in the shower. There is music in a scene talking about Lester and the music is boring and repetitive which represents his life. Also the camera work shows that Lester is looked down on as every time he is in the shot the camera is really far away from him showing that he his distant with his life. There are a few scenes in the film were he looks trapped theres one where he is peeking through the curtains spying on his wife, another is where he is looking at the computer screen and the numbers are in lines on the screen and you can see his reflection making him look like he is behind bars and finally when he is in the shower this shows that Lester is trapped in his boring repetitive life. Finally the mise en scene is very dull his bedroom is bage and  so is most of the clothes are wearing, also his work place has no colour to it and all the workers are dressed in dull clothes. 

1 comment:

  1. Great work so far Brad. You've made a very impressive start to the course. Well done.

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