this is my street. this is my life.

 

Annette Bening in American Beauty

The New York Times ran a Queen Elizabeth II story -- the sub-heading said, "she ruled for seven decades..."

---------------------- She did not rule, she reigned.

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My first thought today was that in the movie American Beauty I had believed / assumed that an act perpetrated near the end was done by one particular character in the story -- but first thing today I thought, "I might have been wrong, it might not have been that person who did it, it might have been another person -- a certain one -- who did it."

        I have movies playing while I'm doing things, so I miss some of the visual information that is unaccompanied by dialogue.  Went back and watched, looking at the screen, the end part -- I was right!  I was wrong!  It was the other person.

        That movie is crazy.  And I have a sense that it's probably awash in mega-symbolism that I'm not even picking up on....

        Wikipedia has info on American Beauty -- they actually have it organized in the form of an outline, with Roman numerals, like in school.  I kind of wanted to read it, but then I don't want to, I want to re-watch the film enough times so that I can figure out everything possible on my own, without reading the thoughts of others.

        Then when I can't find anything else, put anything else together, then I can read the Wikipedia Outline.  (And probably get totally intimidated....)

I noticed, after the second viewing (listening) that the characters sometimes speak in a fake-sounding tone.  And sometimes they talk in a more sincere way.

        So that's probably because -- when it sounds real, the character is being real, and when it sounds fake, the character is being fake, or sarcastic.  Why?  Because they are frustrated, unhappy, bored, they feel ill-used, and like no one understands them or cares.  In the one family, the husband and wife both seem to suffer from what the French call ennui.

        The family next door to them -- Yikes, ennui would be an improvement.

One complaint, and one question.

Complaint:  that people could hit their kids, like that.  It's revolting.

Question:  In one scene the wife, played by Annette Bening, seems to be preparing a vacant house to show to prospective buyers.  She has her Doing-Business clothes on:  a nice dress (or a suit, I don't know) and high heels and she's -- dusting and scrubbing and vacuuming...  Is this normal?

        I have never worked selling real estate, but it seems like, if the house needed to be cleaned you would hire that done ahead of time, not the day the clients are coming.  Or if you're literally doing it yourself, you would wear casual clothes and do it the day before.  And then wear your dressier clothes on the day you show the house to people.

        I was baffled.

(Oh God, maybe it's a symbol, and I didn't get it....)

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Oh, and I forgot to say one thing about this movie:  there is content in it which some viewers may find uncomfortable or offensive, so -- it isn't for everybody.

        Some of it is uncomfortable to me, but what I like about it is how it is so interestingly and artistically presented.

        (Doing this "disclaimer" here, I'm starting to sound like Netflix:

"nudity, violence, drug use, foul language, smoking"

[are these threats, or promises? - lol])

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