American Beauty

[taolanes]

First I planned on watching 'Independence Day' but I wasn't really in the mood. So at least I chose something with 'America' in the title. (American Psycho was not an option though, lol)

Anyways, this is easily one of my most favoruite movies with my single most favourite actor Spacey.

But except the brilliant movie I noticed something else. This might easily be one of the movies with the BEST FREAKING DIALOGUE.

So witty, so funny, so moving. You could close your eyes the entire film and still get a lot out of it. Superb.

Comments?

Other good films with excellent dialogue?

Snoopy

Snoopdog I'm so glad someone made a post about American Beauty. That is one of the few movies to inspire me for years after watching it. It's very rare to hear someone talk about beauty, and how there is so much beauty in the world. I also love how it showed how easily people ignore the beauty all around them.

I think it was made in 1999, before Y2K and terrorism. Also in 1999 was fight club, american history x, and the matrix. All spiritual films dealing with a higher sense of humanity, and not the old stale war mentality you see today. I wish we could get over this racism and war mentality, and advance as humans to a new spiritual journey. George Bush and Bin Laden aren't helping the peace process

 

[shereads]

I like movies where the dialogue comes off as real. I like it when someone seemingly stumbles on a line and they leave it in. People stumble on what they're trying to say all the time. I write dialogue like that, because that's what I hear when I talk to people. They rarely use perfect grammar, they stumble over words or unnecessarily repeat them. They say "uh..." and "um..." a lot. Maybe it isn't the right way to do things, but it seems natural to me. If you take those imperfections out it sounds like the dialogue is just too slick to be a natural conversation, and that is what most movies do, even with great lines.

What's brilliant about the writing in American Beauty is that the dialogue comes across as real, but on a 4th or 5th viewing ( ) you notice that every scene has a reference to something that will be said in another, unrelated scene. It's entirely artificial, on purpose, like a puzzle, yet it seems natural. Which has to be a dozen times harder than just making it seem natural from the outset. Every scene is connected to every other in some way, like Six Degrees of Separation. Songs playing on the radio offer clues to the secret lives of the characters.

Speaking of music, the Annie Lenox cover of Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down," gives me chill bumps. (Used as background to Lester's moment of truth with his Lolita.)

The strokes of genius that I remember are the elements that call the least attention to themselves - elaborate soundstage sets that allowed the director to experiment with different types of "daylight" in minor scenes like the fast food restaurant interior; Allison Janney's performance as the nearly catatonic neighbor, whose ines ended up mostly on the cutting room floor "because she said so much with the words, 'I'm sorry,' that her character was complete," according to the director's commentary. (She apologizes in every scene except the one where she watches her son leave home.) Janney's so genuine in the role of emotionally abused wife that she almost disappears into the wallpaper.

Great uncredited performance by that dancing paper bag, too.

 

[shereads]

Sher: a propos of some of your points, supporting some of your interpretation

http://www.insidefilm.com/alan_ball.html

[interview with Allan Ball, writer of the screenplay]


various drafts at
http://www.books-on-line.com/bol/BookDisplay.cfm?BookNum=19490


final screenplay at
http://www.allmoviescripts.com/scripts/5510953963f572c000ea91.PDF
-----

[the bag scene]

http://archive.salon.com/people/feature/2000/03/25/ball/print.html

[review and comments by Russ Spencer]

Pure, thank you for the links.

Before I devote the rest of the night to them, I might need to watch a few minutes of the documentary, "Trekkies."

Whoa nellie, slow down, girl.

 

[shereads]

My other favorite Brilliant Dialogue Movie (Non-"Real") is Being John Malcovich.

"Remember, 'i' always comes before 'u.'"



The moment that made my sides hurt so that I missed the next several minutes of dialogue and had to buy the DVD is not a brilliant line until it's in context:

"Honey, have you given any thought to our having a baby?"

Context: Tired wife of disinterested husband delivers the line while making dinner, while a parrot is shrieking "SHUT UP" incessantly in the foreground, and the dog is trying to hide behind the woman's legs to escape being humped by the chimpanzee; she's just finished updating her husband on the iguana's vet bills, and he's been bemoaning the scarcity of career opportunities for puppeteers "in today's depressed employment market."*

Now, again: "Honey, have you given any thought to our having a baby?"



*TRAGICALLY DATED LAUGH LINE: "...in today's depressed employment market." That got a laugh during the Clinton administration because there were so many jobs that companies were competing to offer the best employee benefits.

Seriously. Some of us were alive back in the day, and we remember. Corporate America hated the Clinton economy. They were begging people to attend Casual Fridays to evaluate the new cappucino machine before they accepted better offers.

Which is why the line got a huge laugh in the theater. Not, as a modern viewer might think, because it was being delivered to a chimpanzee.

Being John Malcovich is not that old a movie.



Another funny-dark John Cusack movie: Grosse Pointe Blank.

You have to love the premise: professional hit man attends his high school reunion.

"So what do you do now?"

"I'm a professional hit man."

"Are you happy with that?"



Like previous posters, I'm a big fan of Fargo, the under-exposed Barton Fink and a squirrelly little cult-noir flick called Red Rock West. Nicholas Cage starred in Red Rock West before he became The Actor, Nicholas Cage. He was briefly likeable, and had the perfect hang-dog look and I'm-so-exhausted-and-confused-that-I-can-barely-get-the-words-out delivery for a hapless dupe.

 

[scheherazade_79]

American Beauty's one of my all-time favourites, too. I love the way Kevin Spacey's character suddenly says "fuck it" and starts desconstructing his artificial life, and living rather than conforming.

Another movie with great dialogue is Antonia's Line. It's in Dutch, but it's beautifully written, beautifully structured, and has some nice lesbian moments to boot.

 

[Seattle Zack]

Tarantino