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Vertigo (film)
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Vertigo
Vertigomovie restoration.jpg
Original poster by Saul Bass

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by
Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by
Alec Coppel
Samuel A. Taylor
Based on
D'entre les morts
 by Boileau-Narcejac
Starring
James Stewart
Kim Novak
Barbara Bel Geddes
Music by
Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography
Robert Burks
Editing by
George Tomasini
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures
(Original)
Universal Pictures
(Current)
Release dates
May 9, 1958

Running time
128 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$2,479,000
Box office
$14,000,000 (United States)[1]
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor.
The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson. Scottie is forced into early retirement because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo (a sensation of false, rotational, movement). Scottie is hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, as a private investigator to follow Gavin's wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely.
The film was shot on location in San Francisco, California, and at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. It popularized the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie's acrophobia. As a result of its use in this film, the effect is often referred to as "the Vertigo effect".
The film received mixed reviews upon initial release, but is now often cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of the defining works of his career. Attracting significant scholarly criticism, it replaced Citizen Kane as the best film of all time in the 2012 British Film Institute's Sight & Sound critics' poll[2] and has appeared repeatedly in best film polls by the American Film Institute,[3] as well as being named in 2008 as the 40th greatest movie of all time by Empire magazine in its issue of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[4] In 1996, Vertigo underwent a major restoration to create a new 70mm print and DTS soundtrack.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Filming
3.3 Alternate ending
3.4 Music and titles
3.5 Filming locations
4 Reception 4.1 Contemporaneous reception
4.2 Re-evaluation
5 Home media
6 Restoration
7 Derivative works
8 See also
9 References
10 Bibliography
11 External links

Plot[edit]



 Kim Novak at Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point
After a rooftop chase, where his acrophobia and vertigo result in the death of a policeman, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson retires. Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his ex-fiancée Midge Wood suggests another severe emotional shock may be the only cure.
An acquaintance from college, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming she has been possessed. Scottie reluctantly agrees, and follows Madeleine: to a florist where she buys a bouquet of flowers; to the grave of Carlotta Valdes; to an art museum where she gazes at Portrait of Carlotta, which resembles her. Lastly, she enters the McKittrick Hotel, but when Scottie investigates, she is not there.
A local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes tragically committed suicide. Gavin reveals that Carlotta (who Gavin fears is possessing Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine has no knowledge of this, and does not remember where she has visited. Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point, and she leaps into San Francisco Bay. Scottie rescues her.
The next day Scottie follows Madeleine; they meet and spend the day together. They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where Madeleine runs down towards the ocean. Scottie grabs her and they embrace. Scottie identifies the setting of Madeleine's nightmare as Mission San Juan Bautista. He drives her there and they express their love for each other. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower. Scottie, halted on the steps by his vertigo, sees Madeleine plunge to her death.
The death is declared a suicide. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie breaks down, becomes clinically depressed and is in a sanatorium, almost catatonic. After release, Scottie frequents the places that Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her. One day, he notices a woman who reminds him of Madeleine, despite her vulgar appearance. Scottie follows her and she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.
A flashback reveals that Judy was the person Scottie knew as "Madeleine Elster"; she was impersonating Gavin's wife as part of a murder plot. Judy writes to Scottie explaining her involvement with Gavin's murder of his wife. Gavin had deliberately taken advantage of Scottie's acrophobia to substitute his wife's freshly dead body in the apparent "suicide jump". Judy rips up the letter and decides to continue the charade, because she loves Scottie.
They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with "Madeleine" and asks Judy to change her clothes and hair so that she once more resembles Madeleine. When Judy complies, hoping that they may finally find happiness together, he notices her wearing the necklace portrayed in the painting of Carlotta and realizes the truth, he insists on driving her to the Mission.
There, he tells her he must re-enact the event that led to his madness, admitting he now understands that "Madeleine" and Judy are the same. Scottie forces her up the bell tower and makes her admit her deceit. Scottie reaches the top, finally conquering his acrophobia. Judy confesses that Gavin paid her to impersonate a "possessed" Madeleine; Gavin faked the suicide by throwing the body of his wife from the bell tower.
Judy begs Scottie to forgive her, because she loves him. He embraces her, but a nun rises from the trapdoor like a ghost. Judy steps back and falls to her death. Scottie, bereft again, stands on the ledge while the horrified nun rings the mission bell.
Cast[edit]
James Stewart as John "Scottie" Ferguson
Kim Novak as Judy Barton/posing as Madeleine Elster
Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge Wood
Tom Helmore as Gavin Elster
Henry Jones as the coroner
Ellen Corby as the hotel owner
Konstantin Shayne as Pop Leibel
Raymond Bailey as Scottie's doctor
Lee Patrick as the driver mistaken for Madeleine (Judy)
Margaret Brayton as Ransohoff's saleslady
Fred Graham as Scottie's police partner
Alfred Hitchcock makes his customary cameo appearance walking in the street in a gray suit and carrying a trumpet case.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]



 Kim Novak as "Madeleine", who has woken up naked in Scottie's bed after an apparent suicide attempt by drowning.
The screenplay is an adaptation of the French novel The Living and the Dead (D'entre les morts) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Hitchcock had attempted to buy the rights to the previous novel by the same authors, Celle qui n'était plus, but he failed, and it was made instead by Henri-Georges Clouzot as Les Diaboliques.[5] Although François Truffaut once suggested that D'entre les morts was specifically written for Hitchcock by Boileau and Narcejac,[6] Narcejac subsequently denied that this was their intention.[7] However, Hitchcock's interest in their work meant that Paramount Pictures commissioned a synopsis of D'entre les morts in 1954, before it had even been translated into English.[8]
Hitchcock originally hired playwright Maxwell Anderson to write a screenplay, but rejected his work, which was entitled Darkling, I Listen (a quotation from Keats's Ode to a Nightingale). A second version, written by Alec Coppel, again dissatisfied the director.[9] The final script was written by Samuel A. Taylor — who was recommended to Hitchcock due to his knowledge of San Francisco —[8] from notes by Hitchcock. Among Taylor's creations was the character of Midge.[10] Taylor attempted to take sole credit for the screenplay, but Coppel protested to the Screen Writers Guild, which determined that both writers were entitled to a credit.[11]



 The scenes with "Madeleine", and subsequently Judy, at Mission San Juan Bautista used the real Mission location with a much higher bell tower as a special effect.
Vera Miles, who was under personal contract to Hitchcock and had appeared on both his television show and in his film The Wrong Man, was originally scheduled to play Madeleine. She modeled for an early version of the painting which features in the film.[9] Following delays, including Hitchcock becoming ill with gallbladder problems, Miles became pregnant and so had to withdraw from the role.[9] The director declined to postpone shooting and cast Kim Novak as the female lead. Ironically, by the time Novak had tied up prior film commitments and a vacation promised by Columbia Pictures, the studio that held her contract, Miles had given birth and was available for the film. Hitchcock proceeded with Novak, nevertheless. Columbia head Harry Cohn agreed to lend Novak to Vertigo if Stewart would agree to co-star with Novak in Bell, Book and Candle, a Columbia production released in December 1958.
In the book, Judy's involvement in Madeleine's death was not revealed until the denouement. At the script stage, Hitchcock suggested revealing the secret two-thirds of the way through the film so that the audience would understand Judy's mental dilemma.[12] After the first preview, Hitchcock was unsure whether to keep the "letter writing scene" or not. He decided to remove it. Herbert Coleman, Vertigo's associate producer and a frequent collaborator with Hitchcock, felt the removal was a mistake. However, Hitchcock said, "Release it just like that." James Stewart, acting as mediator, said to Coleman: "Herbie, you shouldn't get so upset with Hitch. The picture's not that important." Hitchcock's decision was supported by Joan Harrison, another member of his circle, who felt that the film had been improved. Coleman reluctantly made the necessary edits. When he received news of this, Paramount head Barney Balaban was very vocal about the edits and ordered Hitchcock to "Put the picture back the way it was." As a result, the "letter writing scene" remained in the final film.[13]
Filming[edit]
Vertigo was filmed from September to December 1957.[14] Principal photography began on location in San Francisco in September 1957 under the working title From Among the Dead (the literal translation of D'entre les morts).[9] In the driving scenes shot in the city, the main characters' cars are almost always pictured heading down the city's steeply inclined streets.[14]



 James Stewart as Scottie, and Kim Novak as Judy, in Scottie's apartment with Coit Tower visible out the window
The scene in which Madeleine falls from the tower was filmed at Mission San Juan Bautista, a Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista, California. Associate producer Herbert Coleman's daughter Judy Lanini suggested the mission to Hitchcock as a filming location. A steeple, added sometime after the mission's original construction and secularization, had been demolished following a fire, so Hitchcock added a bell tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the Paramount studio in Los Angeles.[9] The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film's version. The tower's staircase was later assembled inside a studio.
Following 16 days of location shooting, the production moved to Paramount's studios in Hollywood for two months of filming.[9] Hitchcock preferred to film in studios as he was able to control the environment. Once sufficient location footage had been obtained, interior sets were designed and constructed in the studio.[9]
Hitchcock popularized the dolly zoom in this film, leading to the technique's sobriquet, amongst several others, "the Vertigo effect". This "dolly-out/zoom-in" method involves the camera physically moving away from a subject whilst simultaneously zooming in[15] (a similar effect can be achieved in reverse), so that the subject retains its size in the frame, but the background's perspective changes.[16][17] Hitchcock used the effect to look down the tower shaft to emphasise its height and Scottie's disorientation.[18] Following difficulties filming the shot on a full-sized set, a model of the tower shaft was constructed, and the dolly zoom was filmed horizontally.[9]
Hitchcock and costume designer Edith Head used color to heighten emotion.[9] Grey was chosen for Madeline's suit because it is not usually a blonde's colour, so was psychologically jarring.[9] In contrast, Novak's character wore a white coat when she visited Scottie's apartment, which Head and Hitchcock considered more natural for a blonde to wear.[9]
Alternate ending[edit]
A coda to the film was shot that showed Midge listening to a radio report describing the pursuit of Gavin Elster across Europe. When Scottie enters, she switches the radio off. They share a drink and look out of the window in silence. Contrary to reports that this scene was filmed to meet foreign censorship needs,[19] this tag ending had originally been demanded by Geoffrey Shurlock of the U.S. Production Code Administration, who had noted: "It will, of course, be most important that the indication that Elster will be brought back for trial is sufficiently emphasized." Hitchcock finally succeeded in fending off most of Shurlock's demands (which included toning down erotic allusions) and had the tag ending dropped.[8] The footage was discovered in Los Angeles in May 1993, and was added as an alternative ending on the laser disc release.[20]
Music and titles[edit]
Main article: Vertigo (film score)
The score was written by Bernard Herrmann. It was not conducted by him, but was conducted by Muir Mathieson and recorded in Europe, because there was a musicians' strike in the U.S.[21]
In a 2004 special issue of the British Film Institute's (BFI) magazine Sight & Sound, director Martin Scorsese described the qualities of Herrmann's famous score:

Hitchcock's film is about obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again ... And the music is also built around spirals and circles, fulfilment and despair. Herrmann really understood what Hitchcock was going for — he wanted to penetrate to the heart of obsession.[21]
Graphic designer Saul Bass used spiral motifs in both the title sequence and the movie poster, emphasizing what the documentary Obsessed with Vertigo calls, "Vertigo's psychological vortex".[9]
Filming locations[edit]
Filmed from September to December 1957, Vertigo uses location footage of the San Francisco Bay Area, with its steep hills and tall, arching bridges. In the driving scenes shot in the city, the main characters' cars are almost always pictured heading down the city's steeply inclined streets.[14] In October 1996, the restored print of Vertigo debuted at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco with a live on-stage introduction by surviving cast member Kim Novak, providing the city a chance to celebrate itself.[22] Visiting the San Francisco film locations has something of a cult following as well as modest tourist appeal. Such a tour is featured in a subsection of Chris Marker's documentary montage Sans Soleil.
In March 1997, the cultural French magazine Les Inrockuptibles published a special issue titled Vertigo's about the film locations in San Francisco, Dans le décor, which lists and describes all actual locations.[23]
Areas that were shot on location (not recreated in a studio):[22]
Scottie's apartment (900 Lombard Street) is one block downhill from the "crookedest street in the world". Although the door has been repainted, the entrance is easily recognizable save for a few small changes to the patio. The doorbell and the mailbox, which Madeleine uses to deliver a note to Scottie, are exactly the same as they were in the film.
The Mission San Juan Bautista, where Madeleine falls from the tower, is a real place, but the tower had to be matted in with a painting using studio effects; Hitchcock had first visited the mission before the tower was torn down due to dry rot, and was reportedly displeased to find it missing when he returned to film his scenes. The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film's version.
The Carlotta Valdes headstone featured in the film (created by the props department) was left at Mission Dolores. Eventually, the headstone was removed as the mission considered it disrespectful to the dead to house a tourist attraction grave for a fictional person. All other cemeteries in San Francisco were evicted from city limits in 1912, so the screenwriters had no other option but to locate the grave at Mission Dolores.
Madeleine jumps into the sea at Fort Point, underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
The gallery where Carlotta's painting appears is the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The Carlotta Valdes portrait was lost after being removed from the gallery, but many of the other paintings in the background of the portrait scenes are still on view.
Muir Woods National Monument is represented by Big Basin Redwoods State Park; however, the cutaway of the redwood tree showing its age is a replica of one that can still be found at Muir Woods.[clarification needed]
The coastal region where Scottie and Madeleine first kiss is Cypress Point, a location along the 17 Mile Drive near Pebble Beach. However, the lone tree by which they kiss is a prop brought specially to the location.[24]
The domed building past which Scottie and Judy walk is the Palace of Fine Arts.
Coit Tower appears in many background shots; Hitchcock once said that he included it as a phallic symbol.[25] Also prominent in the background is the tower of the San Francisco Ferry Building.
The exterior of the sanatorium where Scottie is treated was a real sanatorium, St. Joseph's Hospital, located at 355 Buena Vista East, across from Buena Vista Park. The complex has been converted into condominiums and the building, built in 1928, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gavin and Madeleine's apartment building is "The Brocklebank" at 1000 Mason Street on Nob Hill, which still looks essentially the same. It is across the street from the Fairmont Hotel, where Hitchcock usually stayed when he visited and where many of the cast and crew stayed during filming. Shots of the surrounding neighborhood feature the Flood Mansion and Grace Cathedral. Barely visible is the Mark Hopkins hotel, mentioned in an early scene in the movie.
The "McKittrick Hotel" was a privately owned Victorian mansion from the 1880s at Gough and Eddy Streets. It was torn down in 1959 and is now an athletic practice field for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School. The St. Paulus Lutheran Church, seen across from the mansion, was destroyed in a fire in 1995.[26]
Podesta Baldocchi is the flower shop Madeleine visits as she is being followed by Scottie. The shop's location at the time of filming was 224 Grant Avenue. The Podesta Baldocchi flower shop now does business from a location at 410 Harriet Street.[27]
The Empire Hotel is a real place, called the York Hotel, and now (as of January 2009) the Hotel Vertigo at 940 Sutter Street. Judy's room was created, but the green neon of the "Hotel Empire" sign outside is based on the actual hotel's sign (it was replaced when the hotel was renamed).
Ernie's Restaurant (847 Montgomery St.) was a real place in North Beach, not far from Scottie's apartment. It is no longer operating.
One short scene shows Union Square at dawn, with old-fashioned "semaphore" traffic lights. Pop Leibel's bookstore, the Argosy, was not a real location, but one recreated on the Paramount lot in imitation of the real-life Argonaut Book Store, which still exists near Sutter and Jones.
One confusing difference from the movie and current San Francisco neighborhood designation is Elster's Mission District Shipping Company (the Mission being described as "Skid Row"). The Mission district of today is actually inland, and the designation of a Mission Bay neighborhood only occurred in the 1980s; today, the area including Mission Bay is referred to as South of Market (SoMA) At the time the designation Inner Mission or "South of the Slot" applied to the waterfront including its working piers located to the south of Market Street, encompassing today's Mission Bay and South Beach. In the 1950s the area south of Market was indeed skid row which is why it was torn down by redevelopment in the 1960s clearing the way for all the new shiny high-rises of today.
Reception[edit]
Contemporaneous reception[edit]
Vertigo premiered in San Francisco on May 9, 1958 at the Stage Door Theater at Mason and Geary (now the Ruby Skye nightclub).[28] While Vertigo did actually break even upon its original release,[29][30] earning $2.8 million in gross rental in the United States alone against its $2,479,000 cost,[31] it earned significantly less than other Hitchcock productions.[28] Reviews were mixed. Variety said the film showed Hitchcock's "mastery", but was too long and slow for "what is basically only a psychological murder mystery".[32] Similarly, the Los Angeles Times admired the scenery, but found the plot "too long" and felt it "bogs down" in "a maze of detail"; scholar Dan Aulier says that this review "sounded the tone that most popular critics would take with the film".[33] However, the Los Angeles Examiner loved it, admiring the "excitement, action, romance, glamor and [the] crazy, off-beat love story".[34] As well, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther also gave Vertigo a positive review by explaining that "[the] secret [of the film] is so clever, even though it is devilishly far-fetched."[35]
Additional reasons for the mixed response initially were that Hitchcock fans were not pleased with his departure from the romantic-thriller territory of earlier films and that the mystery was solved with one-third of the film left to go.[36]
In an interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock stated that Vertigo was one of his favorite films, with some reservations.[37] Hitchcock blamed the film's failure on Stewart, at age 50, looking too old to play a convincing love interest for Kim Novak, who at 25 was half his age.[38]
Hitchcock and Stewart received awards at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, including a Silver Seashell for Best Director (tied with Mario Monicelli for I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street aka Persons Unknown) and Best Actor (also tied, with Kirk Douglas in The Vikings). The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, in the technical categories[39] Best Art Direction - Black-and-White or Color (Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Samuel M. Comer, Frank McKelvy) and Best Sound (George Dutton).[40]
Re-evaluation[edit]
In the 1950s, the French Cahiers du cinéma critics began re-evaluating Hitchcock as a serious artist rather than just a populist showman. However, even François Truffaut's important 1962 interviews with Hitchcock (not published in English until 1967) mention Vertigo only in passing. Dan Aulier has suggested that the real beginning of Vertigo's rise in adulation was the British-Canadian scholar Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films (1968), which calls the film "Hitchcock's masterpiece to date and one of the four or five most profound and beautiful films the cinema has yet given us".[41]
Adding to its mystique was the fact that Vertigo was one of five films owned by Hitchcock which was removed from circulation in 1973. When Vertigo was re-released in theaters in October 1983, and then on home video in October 1984, it achieved an impressive commercial success and laudatory reviews.[42] Similarly adulatory reviews were written for the October 1996 showing of a restored print in 70mm and DTS sound at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.[43]
In 1989, Vertigo was recognized as a "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" film by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in the first year of the registry's voting. Currently on Rotten Tomatoes it has a "certified fresh" rating of 98%.
Among international film critics, the film has experienced a similar re-evaluation. Every ten years since 1952, the British Film Institute's film magazine Sight & Sound has asked the world’s leading film critics to compile a list of the 10 best films of all time. Not until 1982 did Vertigo enter the list, and then in 7th place.[44] By 1992 it had advanced to 4th place,[45] by 2002 to 2nd.[46] Vertigo was voted in first place in Sight & Sound's 2012 poll of the greatest films of all time, both in the crime genre and in general, displacing Orson Welles' Citizen Kane from the position it had occupied since 1962.[2][47] Commenting upon the 2012 results, the magazine's editor Nick James said that Vertigo was "the ultimate critics' film. It is a dream-like film about people who are not sure who they are but who are busy reconstructing themselves and each other to fit a kind of cinema ideal of the ideal soul-mate."[2]
In his 2004 book Blockbuster, however, British film critic Tom Shone suggested that Vertigo's critical re-evaluation has led to excessive praise, and argued for a more measured response. Faulting Sight & Sound for "perennially" putting the film on the list of best-ever films, he wrote that "Hitchcock is a director who delights in getting his plot mechanisms buffed up to a nice humming shine, and so the Sight and Sound team praise the one film of his in which this is not the case – it's all loose ends and lopsided angles, its plumbing out on display for the critic to pick over at his leisure."[48]
In 2005, Vertigo came in second (to Goodfellas) in British magazine Total Film's book 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[49]
American Film Institute recognition
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies #61
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills #18
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #12
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions #18
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #9
AFI's 10 Top 10 #1 Mystery[50]
The San Francisco locations have become celebrated amongst the film's fans, with organised tours across the area.[51] In March 1997, the cultural French magazine Les Inrockuptibles published a special issue titled Vertigo's about the film locations in San Francisco, Dans le décor, which lists and describes all actual locations.[52] In October 1996, the restored print of Vertigo debuted at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco with a live on-stage introduction by Kim Novak, providing the city a chance to celebrate itself.[22]
Critics have interpreted it variously as “a tale of male aggression and visual control; as a map of female Oedipal trajectory; as a deconstruction of the male construction of femininity and of masculinity itself; as a stripping bare of the mechanisms of directorial, Hollywood studio and colonial oppression; and as a place where textual meanings play out in an infinite regress of self-reflexivity.”[53] Director Martin Scorsese has listed Vertigo as one of his favourite films of all time.[54]
Home media[edit]
In 1996, director Harrison Engle produced a documentary about the making of Hitchcock's classic, Obsessed with Vertigo. Narrated by Roddy McDowell, the film played on American Movie Classics, and has since been included with DVD versions of Vertigo. Surviving members of the cast and crew participated, along with noted filmmaker Martin Scorsese and Alfred's daughter, Patricia Hitchcock.[9] Engle first visited the Vertigo shooting locations in the summer of 1958, just months after completion of the film.
Vertigo was first released on DVD in March 1998, and on Blu-ray in October 2012 as part of Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection. Some of the home video releases also carry the original mono audio track.
Restoration[edit]



James Stewart as Johnny "Scottie" Ferguson in Midge's apartment, standing on a stepladder trying to overcome his acrophobia
In 1996, the film was given a lengthy and controversial restoration by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz and re-released to theaters. The new print featured restored color and newly created audio, utilizing modern sound effects mixed in DTS digital surround sound. In October 1996, the restored Vertigo premiered at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with Kim Novak and Patricia Hitchcock in person. At this screening, the film was exhibited for the first time in DTS and 70mm, a format with a similar frame size to the VistaVision system in which it was originally shot.
When restoring the sound, Harris and Katz wanted to stay as close as possible to the original, and had access to the original music recordings that had been stored in the vaults at Paramount. However, as the project demanded a new 6-channel DTS stereo soundtrack, it was necessary to re-record some sound effects using the foley process.[9] The soundtrack was remixed at the Alfred Hitchcock Theatre at Universal Studios. Aware that the film had a considerable following, the restoration team knew that they were under particular pressure to restore the film as accurately as possible. To achieve this, they used Hitchcock's original dubbing notes for guidance of how the director wanted the film to sound in 1958.[9] Harris and Katz sometimes added extra sound effects to camouflage defects in the old soundtrack ("hisses, pops, and bangs"); in particular they added extra seagull cries and a foghorn to the scene at Cypress Point.[55] The new mix has also been accused of putting too much emphasis on the score at the expense of the sound effects.[56] The 2005 Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD contains the original mono track as an option.
Significant color correction was necessary because of the fading of original negatives. In some cases a new negative was created from the silver separation masters, but in many instances this was impossible because of differential separation shrinkage, and because the 1958 separations were poorly made. Separations used three individual films: one for each of the primary colors. In the case of Vertigo, these had shrunk in different and erratic proportions, making re-alignment impossible.[9] As such, significant amounts of computer assisted coloration were necessary. Although the results are not noticeable on viewing the film, some elements were as many as eight generations away from the original negative, in particular the entire "Judy's Apartment" sequence, which is perhaps the most pivotal sequence in the entire film (on a large screen this sequence appears to be a 16mm duplicate of the original).[original research?]
When such large portions of re-creation become necessary, then the danger of artistic license by the restorers becomes an issue, and the restorers received some criticism for their re-creation of colors that allegedly did not honor the director and cinematographer's intentions. The restoration team argued that they did research on the colors used in the original locations, cars, wardrobe, and skin tones. One breakthrough moment came when the Ford Motor Company supplied a well-preserved green paint sample for a car used in the film. As the use of the color green in the film has artistic importance, matching a shade of green was a stroke of luck for restoration and provided a reference shade from which to work.[57]
Derivative works[edit]


 This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (July 2013)
High Anxiety, a 1977 film by Mel Brooks, is a parody of suspense films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but leans on Vertigo in particular.[58] Obsession, a 1976 film by Brian De Palma, is heavily influenced by Vertigo. The Vertigo Murders, a 2000 novel by J. Madison Davis, is a detective story with Hitchcock as a character, set during the filming of Vertigo. To Kill For, a 2008 play by Lucy Gray, is a biographical fantasy in which Hitchcock and his wife interact with the characters from Vertigo. The Testament of Judith Barton, a 2012 novel by Wendy Powers and Robin McLeod, tells the back-story of Kim Novak's character.[59] Harvey Danger's song "Carlotta Valdes," from the album Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?, summarizes the plot of the film.[60] The "Love Theme From Vertigo" was used for an extended sequence in the 2011 black and white silent film The Artist, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Film portal
Vertigo effect
Alfred Hitchcock filmography
Cinema of the United States
List of American films of 1958
List of films considered the best
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Block & Wilson 2010, p. 400.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c "Vertigo is named 'greatest film of all time'". BBC News. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
3.Jump up ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10". American Film Institute. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
4.Jump up ^ "Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire Magazine. January 1, 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
5.Jump up ^ "Thomas Narcejac, 89, Author of Crime Novels". The New York Times. 1998-07-05. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
6.Jump up ^ Truffaut 1985
7.Jump up ^ Jones 2002
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Auiler 1999, p. 30
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Obsessed with Vertigo", directed by Harrison Engle, documentary included on many DVD releases
10.Jump up ^ Auiler 1999, p. 51
11.Jump up ^ Auiler 1999, pp. 61–2
12.Jump up ^ McGilligan 2003, pp. 547–548
13.Jump up ^ McGilligan 2003, pp. 563–564
14.^ Jump up to: a b c Auiler 2000, p. 185
15.Jump up ^ Some sources say that Vertigo uses dolly-in/zoom-out. The Obsessed with Vertigo DVD documentary says that the shot was achieved by "zooming forward and tracking backward simultaneously".
16.Jump up ^ Klein 2005, pp. 33–5
17.Jump up ^ Mamer 2008, p. 25
18.Jump up ^ Sipos 2010, pp. 120–1
19.Jump up ^ Vertigo 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2008.
20.Jump up ^ Brooks, Richard, "Arts: Final reel of a long suspense story - Our reporter sees two Hitchcock propaganda films from World War II, which made the Foreign Office too nervous to release them for 50 years". The Observer, June 20, 1993
21.^ Jump up to: a b Scorsese, Martin (September 2004). "The Best Music in Film: Martin Scorsese". Sight & Sound (BFI). Archived from the original on July 11, 2010.
22.^ Jump up to: a b c Kraft & Leventhal 2002
23.Jump up ^ Various (March 1997). "Vertigo's". Les Inrockuptibles.
24.Jump up ^ Aulier 1999, p. 90
25.Jump up ^ Kraft & Leventhal 2002, p. 122
26.Jump up ^ http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2010/09/free_farm_at_gough_and_eddy_in_full_bloom.html
27.Jump up ^ Podesta Baldocchi, World's Oldest Family Owned Florist - Since 1871.
28.^ Jump up to: a b Auiler 2000, p. 174
29.Jump up ^ Monaco 2010, p. 153
30.Jump up ^ Lev 2006, pp. 203–4
31.Jump up ^ Canning, Bob (2010),  Missing or empty |title= (help) In: Block & Wilson 2010.
32.Jump up ^ Variety Staff (June 14, 1958). "Vertigo (review)". Variety.
33.Jump up ^ Auiler 2000, pp. 170–1
34.Jump up ^ Auiler 2000, p. 172
35.Jump up ^ Crowther, Bosley (May 29, 1958). "Movie Review - Vertigo - Vertigo,' Hitchcock's Latest; Melodrama Arrives at the Capitol". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2010-08-04.
36.Jump up ^ Sterritt, David (June 13, 2008). "At 50, Hitchcock's Timeless 'Vertigo' Still Offers a Dizzying Array of Gifts". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
37.Jump up ^ Truffaut 1985, p. 187
38.Jump up ^ Eliot 2006, p. 322
39.Jump up ^ "NY Times: Vertigo". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-23.
40.Jump up ^ "The 31st Academy Awards (1959) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-21.
41.Jump up ^ Auiler 2000, p. 177
42.Jump up ^ Auiler 2000, pp. 190–1
43.Jump up ^ Auiler 2000, p. 191
44.Jump up ^ "BFI's Sight & Sound Critics’ poll 1982". BFI. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
45.Jump up ^ "BFI's Sight & Sound Critics' poll 1992". BFI. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
46.Jump up ^ "BFI's Sight & Sound Critics' poll 2002". BFI. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
47.Jump up ^ "BFI's Sight & Sound Critics' poll 2012". BFI. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
48.Jump up ^ Shone 2004
49.Jump up ^ "Who is the greatest?". Total Film. 2005-10-24. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
50.Jump up ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10". American Film Institute. 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
51.Jump up ^ Such a tour is featured in a subsection of Chris Marker's documentary montage Sans Soleil.
52.Jump up ^ Various (March 1997). "Vertigo's". Les Inrockuptibles.
53.Jump up ^ White, Susan (1999). "Vertigo and Problems of Knowledge in Feminist Film Theory". In Allen, Richard; Ishii-Gonzales, Sam. Alfred Hitchcock: Centenary Essays. London: BFI. p. 279. ISBN 9780851707358. cited in Barr, Charles (2002). Vertigo. London: BFI. p. 19. ISBN 9780851709185.
54.Jump up ^ "Scorsese’s 12 favorite films". Miramax.com. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
55.Jump up ^ Katz, cited in Auiler 2000, p. 198
56.Jump up ^ "Vertigo". Universal Pictures International.
57.Jump up ^ Auiler 2000, pp. 190–193
58.Jump up ^ Parish 2008, p. 221
59.Jump up ^ Thomson, David (June 10, 2012). "Haunted by Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Haunted-by-Hitchcock-s-Vertigo-3621253.php
60.Jump up ^ "Harvey Danger: Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?". Sputnik Music. 8 July 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
Bibliography[edit]
Auiler, Dan (1999). Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic. London: Titan Books.
Auiler, Dan (2000). Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-26409-7.
Block, Alex Ben; Wilson, Lucy Autrey, eds. (2010). George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-By-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061778896.
Klein, Richard B. (2005). Coles, Felice Anne, ed. In memory of Richard B. Klein: essays in contemporary philology. Romance Monographs, University of Mississippi.
Eliot, Marc (2006). Jimmy Stewart: a biography. Harmony Books. ISBN 9781400052219.
Kraft, Jeff; Leventhal, Aaron (2002). Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco. Santa Monica Press. ISBN 1-891661-27-2.
Jones, Dan (2002). The Dime Novel and the Master of Suspense: The Adaptation of D'Entre Les Morts Into Vertigo. Saint Paul, Minn.: University of St. Thomas.
Lev, Peter (2006). Transforming the Screen, 1950-1959. Volume 7 of History of the American Cinema. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520249660.
Mamer, Bruce (2008). Film Production Technique: Creating the Accomplished Image (5th ed.). Cengage Learning. ISBN 0495411167.
McGilligan, Patrick (2003). Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. ReganBooks.
Monaco, Paul (2010). A History of American Movies: A Film-By-Film Look at the Art, Craft, and Business of Cinema. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810874343.
Parish, James Robert (2008). It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470225264.
Shone, Tom (2004). Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-6838-5.
Sipos, Tomas M. (2010). Horror Film Aesthetics: Creating The Visual Language of Fear. McFarland. ISBN 0786449721.
Truffaut, François; Hitchcock, Alfred (1985). Hitchcock. New York: Simon and Schuster. OCLC 273102.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vertigo (film).
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Vertigo
Vertigo at allmovie
Vertigo at the American Film Institute Catalog
Vertigo at the Internet Movie Database
Vertigo at Rotten Tomatoes
Official web page at Universal Studios Entertainment
Restoration
A Very Different "Slice of Cake:" Restoring Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
A Swimming in the Head Detailed critique of the 1996 restoration


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Splendor in the Grass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the 1961 film. For the Australian music festival, see Splendour in the Grass. For the Pink Martini album, see Splendor in the Grass (album). For the TV film, see Splendor in the Grass (1981 film).

Splendor in the Grass
Splendor Sheet A.jpg
Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold

Directed by
Elia Kazan
Produced by
Elia Kazan
Written by
William Inge
Starring
Natalie Wood
Warren Beatty
Pat Hingle
Music by
David Amram
Cinematography
Boris Kaufman
Editing by
Gene Milford
Studio
NBI Productions
 Newton Productions
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release dates
October 10, 1961

Running time
124 minutes
Language
English
Box office
$4,000,000 (US/ Canada)[1]
Splendor in the Grass is a 1961 Technicolor romantic drama film that tells a story of sexual repression, love, and heartbreak, from which the character Deanie suffers. Written by William Inge, who appears briefly as a Protestant clergyman and won an Oscar for his screenplay, the film was directed by Elia Kazan.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Awards and accolades
6 Remake
7 References in popular culture
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
1928 Kansas: Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis (Natalie Wood) is a teenage girl who follows her mother's advice to resist her desire for sex with her boyfriend, Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty), the son of one of the most prosperous families in town. In turn, Bud reluctantly follows the advice of his father, Ace (Pat Hingle), who suggests that he find another kind of girl with whom to satisfy his desires.
Bud's parents are ashamed of his older sister, Ginny (Barbara Loden), a flapper and party girl who is sexually promiscuous, smokes, drinks, and has recently been brought back from Chicago, where her parents had a marriage annulled to someone who married her solely for her money. Rumors in town, however, have been swirling that the real reason was that she had an abortion (or as Deanie's mother said, "one of those 'awful surgeries'"), although the truth of the rumor is never substantiated, nor denied in the film. Being so disappointed in their daughter, Bud's parents "pin all their hopes" on Bud, pressuring him to attend Yale University.
Bud knows one of the girls in high school, Juanita (played by Jan Norris) who is willing to become sexually involved with him, and he relieves his sexual tension in a liaison with her. A short while later, depressed because of Bud ending their relationship, Deanie acts out by modeling herself after Bud's sister, Ginny. At a party she attends with another boy from high school, 'Toots' Tuttle (Gary Lockwood), at which she goes outside with Bud and begs him to have sex (although this is only implicitly suggested). When she is rebuffed by Bud, who is shocked, since he always thought of her as a "good girl", she turns back to 'Toots', who drives her out to a private parking spot by some falls and ponds. While there, Deanie realizes that she can't go through with sex, at which point she is almost raped. Escaping from 'Toots' she almost drowns in one of the ponds, and is driven close to madness. Her parents sell their stock to pay for her institutionalization, which actually turns out to be a blessing in disguise, since they make a nice profit prior to the Crash of '29 that leads to the Great Depression.
While Deanie is in the institution she meets another patient, Glenn (Sean Garrison), who is working out anger issues targeted at his parents, who want him to be a surgeon. The two patients form a bond. Meanwhile, Bud is sent off to Yale, where he virtually fails all his subjects. While at school, he meets the daughter of Italian immigrants, Angelina (Zohra Lampert), who run a local restaurant in New Haven. Bud's father, Ace (Pat Hingle), travels to New Haven in an attempt to get the dean to not kick Bud out of school in October 1929. While in New Haven, the stock market crashes, in which Ace loses everything. He takes Bud to New York, where he commits suicide. Bud has to identify the body.
In the final sequence of scenes, Deanie returns home from the asylum after two years and six months, "almost to the day". We find out that Ace had lost everything, and his wife has gone to live with relatives. Bud's sister has died in a car crash. Deanie's mother wants to shield her from any potential anguish from meeting Bud, and so pretends to not know where he is. When Deanie's high school friends come over, her mother gets them to agree to feign ignorance on Bud's whereabouts. However, Deanie's father refuses to coddle his daughter, and says that Bud has taken up ranching and now lives on the old family farm. Her friends drive Deanie out to meet Bud. He is now married to Angelina, and they have an infant son, "Bud Jr.", and Angelina is expecting another. Deanie lets Bud know that she is going to marry Glenn, who is now a doctor in Cincinnati. During their brief reunion, Deanie and Bud realize that both must accept what life has thrown at them, as Bud says, "What's the point? You gotta take what comes". Each says, or implies, "I don't think about happiness very much anymore."[2]
As Deanie leaves with her friends, the scene focuses on Bud and Angela. While Bud only seems partially satisfied by the direction his life has taken, he takes the moment to reassure Angela, who he notices has realized that Deanie was once the love of Bud's life.[2] Back in the car with her friends, they ask her if she is still in love with Bud. She realizes that she still loves him warmly, but that they can never recover that blazing love of youth which they once had. She does not answer her friends, but in a voice-over, Deanie recites four verses from Wordsworth's poem, from which the title of the film is taken:
'"Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower, we will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind."[2]
Cast[edit]
Natalie Wood as Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis
Warren Beatty as Bud Stamper
Pat Hingle as Ace Stamper
Joanna Roos as Mrs. Stamper
Audrey Christie as Mrs. Loomis
Fred Stewart as Del Loomis
Barbara Loden as Ginny Stamper
Zohra Lampert as Angelina
John McGovern as Doc Smiley
Jan Norris as Juanita Howard
Martine Bartlett as Miss Metcalf
Gary Lockwood as Allen "Toots" Tuttle
Sandy Dennis as Kay
Crystal Field as Hazel
Marla Adams as June
Phyllis Diller as Texas Guinan
Production[edit]
The film is based on people whom screenwriter William Inge knew while growing up in Kansas in the 1920s. He told the story to director Elia Kazan when they were working on a production of Inge's play The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, in 1957. They agreed that it would make a good film and that they wanted to work together on it. Inge wrote it first as a novel, then as a screenplay.
The film's title is taken from a line of William Wordsworth's poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood":
What though the radiance which was once so brightBe now for ever taken from my sight,Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;We will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind...
Two years before writing the screenplay for the film, Inge wrote a stage play whose title comes from the same line of the poem, Glory in the Flower (1953). The play relates the story of two middle-aged former lovers who meet again briefly at a diner after a long estrangement; they are essentially the same characters as Bud and Deanie, though the names are "Bus" and "Jackie".
Scenes of Kansas and the Loomis home were shot in the Travis section of Staten Island, New York City.[3] Exterior scenes of the high school campus were shot at Horace Mann School in the Bronx. The gothic buildings of the North Campus of The City College of New York stand in for Yale University in New Haven.[4] The scenes at the waterfall were shot in High Falls, New York, summer home of director Kazan.[4]
Warren Beatty, while having appeared on television (most notably in a recurring role on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis), made his screen debut in this film. He had met Inge the prior year while appearing in Inge's play, A Loss of Roses, on Broadway.[5]
Also making her screen debut in this film, Sandy Dennis appeared in a small role as a classmate of Deanie's.[5] Marla Adams, and Phyllis Diller were others who made their first appearance in this film.[5] Diller's role was based on the real life Texas Guinan, a famous actress and restaurateur, who owned the famous "300 Club" in New York City in the 20's.
Reception[edit]
Bosley Crowther, in a "Critics' Pick" review, called the film a "frank and ferocious social drama that makes the eyes pop and the modest cheek burn"; he had comments on several of the performances:[6]
Pat Hingle "gives a bruising performance as the oil-wealthy father of the boy, pushing and pounding and preaching, knocking the heart out of the lad"
Audrey Christie is "relentlessly engulfing as the sticky-sweet mother of the girl"
Warren Beatty is a "surprising newcomer" and an "amiable, decent, sturdy lad whose emotional exhaustion and defeat are the deep pathos in the film"
Natalie Wood has a "beauty and radiance that carry her through a role of violent passions and depressions with unsullied purity and strength. There is poetry in her performance, and her eyes in the final scene bespeak the moral significance and emotional fulfillment of this film."
Time magazine said "the script, on the whole, is the weakest element of the picture, but scriptwriter Inge can hardly be blamed for it" since it had been "heavily edited" by Kazan; he called the film a "relatively simple story of adolescent love and frustration" that has been "jargoned-up and chaptered-out till it sounds like an angry psychosociological monograph describing the sexual mores of the heartless heartland."[7]
Awards and accolades[edit]
At the 34th Academy Awards, Inge won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay—Written Directly for the Screen; Wood was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, but lost to Sophia Loren in Two Women.[8]
Elia Kazan would receive a nomination for a Director's Guild of America (DGA), but would lose out to Jerome Robbins and Robert E. Wise for West Side Story.[9]
The film would garner three Golden Globe nominations in 1962, for "Best Motion Picture-Drama", "Best Motion Picture Actor-Drama" for Warren Beatty, and "Best Motion Picture Actress-Drama" for Natalie Wood.[10]
Natalie Wood received a nomination for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for "Best Foreign Actress".[11]
The film also received three nominations in the 1961 Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards: "Best Picture - Drama", "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama" for Warren Beatty, and "Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama" for Natalie Wood.[4]
The film ranked #50 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
In 2002 the American Film Institute ranked Splendor in the Grass number 47 on its definitive list of the top 100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time.[12]
Remake[edit]
Splendor in the Grass was re-made as a 1981 television film of the same name with Melissa Gilbert, Cyril O'Reilly, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
References in popular culture[edit]
Pink Martini released their fourth album in 2009, titled Splendor in the Grass.
Eric Carmen wrote the song "Hey Deanie" about the character of the same name on his album Change of Heart. "Hey Deanie" also became a Top 10 hit for Shaun Cassidy.
Jackie De Shannon wrote her song "Splendor in the Grass" in 1966 after watching the movie. She released three singles with two versions of the song.
The UK pop group Gullivers People recorded a popular single of the song in 1966. It was produced for EMI Parlophone label by Norman "Hurricane" Smith
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "All-Time B.O. Champs", Variety, 3 January 1968 p 25. Please note these figures refer to rentals accruing to the distributors.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c "filmsite".
3.Jump up ^ "Forgotten NY".
4.^ Jump up to: a b c "New York Times".
5.^ Jump up to: a b c "Filmreference.com".
6.Jump up ^ Crowther, Bosley (October 11, 1961). "Splendor in the Grass". NYT Critics' Pick. The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
7.Jump up ^ "Cinema: Love in Kazansas". Time. October 13, 1961. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
8.Jump up ^ "34th Academy Awards".
9.Jump up ^ "14th Annual DGA Awards".
10.Jump up ^ "Who's Dated Who".
11.Jump up ^ "BAFTA Awards".
12.Jump up ^ "AFI".
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Splendor in the Grass
Splendor in the Grass at the Internet Movie Database
Splendor in the Grass at allmovie
Splendor in the Grass at the TCM Movie Database
Splendor in the Grass at the American Film Institute Catalog
Splendor in the Grass at Rotten Tomatoes


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Films directed by Elia Kazan


1940s
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) ·
 The Sea of Grass (1947) ·
 Boomerang! (1947) ·
 Gentleman's Agreement (1947) ·
 Pinky (1949)
 

1950s
Panic in the Streets (1950) ·
 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) ·
 Viva Zapata! (1952) ·
 Man on a Tightrope (1953) ·
 On the Waterfront (1954) ·
 East of Eden (1955) ·
 Baby Doll (1956) ·
 A Face in the Crowd (1957)
 

1960s
Wild River (1960) ·
 Splendor in the Grass (1961) ·
 America America (1963) ·
 The Arrangement (1969)
 

1970s
The Visitors (1972) ·
 The Last Tycoon (1976)
 

 


Categories: 1961 films
English-language films
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American romantic drama films
Romantic period films
Films about bipolar disorder
Films directed by Elia Kazan
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in the 1930s
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Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
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The Cranes Are Flying
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


The Cranes Are Flying
Letyat Zhuravli.jpg
Film poster

Directed by
Mikhail Kalatozov
Written by
Viktor Rozov (play & screenplay)
Starring
Tatyana Samojlova
Aleksey Batalov
Vasili Merkuryev
Music by
Moisey Vaynberg
Cinematography
Sergey Urusevsky
Editing by
Mariya Timofeyeva
Studio
Mosfilm
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release dates
1957 (USSR)
 21 March 1960 (U.S.)
Running time
97 minutes
Country
Soviet Union
Language
Russian
The Cranes Are Flying (Russian: Летят журавли, translit. Letyat zhuravli) is a Soviet film about World War II. It depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II (known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War). It was directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov in 1957 and stars Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana Samoilova. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival,[1] the only Soviet film to win that award, although The Turning Point (1946) was one of eleven films awarded that year's Grand Prix, the predecessor of the Palme d'Or.[2]


Contents  [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Reception and Influence
3 Cast
4 References
5 External links

Synopsis[edit]
Fyodor Ivanovich is a doctor who lives with his son, Boris; his daughter, Irina; his mother; and his nephew, Mark. The film centers on Boris's girlfriend, Veronika, during World War II.The character of Veronica represents Soviet women in the context of the aftermath of the aforementioned war.
The call to war sounds, and the country responds with great patriotic fervor. Boris volunteers to defend his homeland from the attackers, much to Veronika's sadness. He is killed in a swamp, while saving the life of a fellow soldier. However, he is listed as missing in action; neither Veronika nor his family learn that he has been killed.
The German blitzkrieg then begins; people take refuge in the subway system underneath the city. During one attack, Veronika's parents refuse to leave their apartment; when Veronika returns, she finds that the building has been bombed. The entire apartment is gone and there is no sign of her parents. Fyodor Ivanovich invites Veronika to live with his family. Mark, who has been pursuing Veronika, is put in charge of keeping her company to lift her spirits. He is obviously in love with her, but she continually rejects him, waiting for Boris to return. However, during one bombing raid Veronika refuses to go down to the shelter and is left alone with Mark. This scene is unclear, but it appears that Mark rapes Veronika. She is then shamed into marrying him, and the rest of the family believes that she has betrayed Boris.
The family is relocated with many other Russians further East to escape the German offensive. They live in a temporary community where Fyodor Ivanovich, Irina, and Veronika work in a military hospital. Mark spends his time partying and playing music; he and Veronika are both clearly unhappy in their marriage. One of the soldiers in the hospital becomes hysterical when he receives a letter saying that his girlfriend has left him; Fyodor Ivanovich admonishes the soldier to forget about her, since women who cannot wait for their men to return are not worth grieving. Veronika overhears the speech and becomes very upset, since she appears to be such a woman.
Fyodor Ivanovich discovers that Mark's deferral from conscription was not because he was considered too talented to be drafted, as he has claimed, but because he bribed an official in Fyodor Ivanovich's name. Fyodor Ivanovich suddenly realizes that Mark has betrayed not only Russia, but the family as well, and has taken advantage of Veronika. Fyodor Ivanovich confronts Mark and kicks him out of the house, while Veronika is invited to stay and is forgiven by the family for "betraying" Boris.
The man that Boris died trying to save comes in search of Boris's family to tell them the news. When Veronika finds out, she refuses to believe it, saying that Boris's friend Stepan, who volunteered with Boris, will know what happened to him. At the end of the war, when the soldiers return, Veronika finds Stepan and learns that Boris is indeed dead. Stepan sadly gives her a bouquet of flowers, and Veronika stumbles in tears through the celebrating crowd. However, the film ends on a hopeful note: Stepan makes a speech asserting that they will never forget those who died in the war, and Veronika hands out the flowers in her bouquet to the returning soldiers.
Reception and Influence[edit]
As film scholar Josephine Woll observes, the protagonist Veronika was instrumental in shaping the post-Stalinist Soviet movies by heralding more complicated, multi-dimensional celluloid heroines. It was not only Soviet audiences that accepted and sympathized with Veronika‘s story. The lead actress of Cranes, the beautiful Tatiana Samoilova, who was frequently identified with her role, took Europe by storm. Following the film's victory at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958, where it earned the event‘s prestigious Grand Prize, the world celebrated the film‘s main protagonist. Woll notes that the French Liberation commentator, for example, approvingly contrasted Samoilova‘s purity and authenticity with that Western female icon, Brigitte Bardot.[3] Samoilova even remembered receiving a watch from her East German fans during a festival there; the gift featured the inscription: "Finally we see on the Soviet screen a face, not a mask."[4]
Cast[edit]



 The illustrated PSE with the scenes from the film: A. Batalov as Boris, T. Samojlova as Veronika. Russia, 2003 г.Tatiana Samoilova as Veronika
Aleksey Batalov as Boris
Vasili Merkuryev as Fyodor Ivanovich
Aleksandr Shvorin as Mark
Svetlana Kharitonova (1932-2012) as Irina
Konstantin Nikitin as Volodya
Valentin Zubkov as Stepan
Antonina Bogdanova as Grandmother
Boris Kokovkin as Tyernov
Yekaterina Kupriyanova as Anna Mikhajlovna
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Cranes are Flying". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
2.Jump up ^ Palme d'Or
3.Jump up ^ Josephine Woll, The Cranes are Flying (London: I. B. Tauris, 2003), 77.
4.Jump up ^ Josephine Woll, Cranes, 77.
External links[edit]
The Cranes Are Flying at allmovie
The Cranes Are Flying at the Internet Movie Database
Criterion Collection essay by Chris Fujiwara
Criterion Current article by Haskell Wexler
Comparison of different DVD editions (in Russian and English)


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Films directed by Mikhail Kalatozov




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Memoirs of a Geisha
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This article is about the book. For the film, see Memoirs of a Geisha (film).

Memoirs of a Geisha
MemoirsOfAGeisha.jpg
First edition cover

Author
Arthur Golden
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Historical novel
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date
September 27, 1997
Media type
Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages
448 pp (hardcover edition)
ISBN
ISBN 0-375-40011-7 (hardcover edition)
OCLC Number
37689141
Dewey Decimal
813/.54 21
LC Classification
PS3557.O35926 M45 1997
Memoirs of a Geisha is a historical novel by American author Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the fictional story of a geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before and after World War II.
In 2005, a film version was released.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 References to actual locations
3 Lawsuit
4 Film version
5 Legacy
6 See also
7 Footnotes
8 References

Plot summary[edit]
At the age of nine, Chiyo Sakamoto is taken from her poverty-stricken fishing village of Yoroido on the coast of the Sea of Japan with her older sister Satsu and sold to an okiya (geisha boarding house) in Gion, the most prominent geisha district in Kyoto. Perceived as less attractive in looks and demeanor, Satsu is not sold into the okiya and is instead forced into becoming a prostitute in Kyoto's pleasure district. Chiyo lives in the okiya alongside another young girl named Pumpkin, the elderly and grumbling Granny, money-obsessed Mother, and Auntie, a failed geisha. Also living in the okiya is the famous and ill-mannered geisha, Hatsumomo. She promptly takes to disliking Chiyo, who she sees as a potential future rival who may threaten her place in the okiya and Gion, as well as Mother's financial dependence upon her earnings. Hatsumomo begins to go out of her way to get rid of Chiyo.
One rainy night after returning to the okiya, Chiyo happens upon Hatsumomo engaged in intimate relations with her plebeian boyfriend, Koichi, a livelihood-threatening situation for a geisha, whose air of unattainability is crucial to their allure. The startled and enraged Hatsumomo twists the situation to place blame for a fictional indiscretion on Chiyo. Eventually, Mother learns the truth from Chiyo and though she is punished, Hatsumomo is also banned from seeing Koichi again, increasing her hatred for Chiyo. Despite Pumpkin and Auntie's warning not to run away, Chiyo plans to leave the okiya and escape the city with Satsu, but is caught when she falls off the roof and breaks her arm. Enraged at her for dishonoring the okiya and incurring further medical costs, Mother stops investing in Chiyo and makes her pay off her increasing debts as a slave, rather than a geisha in training.
Several years later, a downtrodden Chiyo is given money and a handkerchief in the street by a strange but kind man known at this point only as the Chairman. She donates the money to the Yasaka shrine in Gion, praying to become a geisha in the hopes of entering an exclusive social sphere where she may have a chance of seeing him again, keeping the handkerchief as a memento. Chiyo is somewhat envious of Pumpkin, who is on her way to becoming a geisha under Hatsumomo's tutelage, while Chiyo still remains a maid under Mother. Pumpkin advances and is given her geisha name as Hatsumiyo but much to Hatsumomo's dismay, everyone still refers to her as Pumpkin.
In a startling turn of events for Chiyo, not long after visiting the shrine and during Granny's funeral, she is taken in as a protégé by Mameha, a rival of Hatsumomo and the owner of a kimono Hatsumomo previously forced Chiyo to ruin. Mameha persuades Mother to reinvest into Chiyo's training. Chiyo adopts the name of Sayuri for her geisha name, with Mameha acting as her "older sister" and mentor. Mameha mentions that despite Hatsumomo's popularity, she was in fact a failure due to once angering the mistress of her principal tea house. As a result, she could never obtain a danna to sponsor her independence and she has stayed in the okiya under Mother. It was also revealed that despite her financial contributions, Mother had refused to name Hatsumomo as the heiress of the okiya because she was afraid of the trouble she would bring if named. Everyone believes Hatsumomo would likely throw Mother out, sell off the okiya's kimono collection, retire and live on the money.
Hatsumomo continues to go out of her way to ruin Sayuri by tarnishing her reputation in Gion, forcing Mameha and Sayuri to devise a plan to push Hatsumomo out of the Nitta okiya lest Sayuri's career ultimately die. They arrange for Sayuri's mizuage (portrayed as a deflowering "ceremony" for maiko as a step to becoming full-fledged geisha) to be bidden upon by several influential men, namely mentor Toshikazu Nobu, the president of Iwamura Electric as well as a close friend Ken Iwamura, who is revealed to be the Chairman; and reputed mizuage specialist "Dr. Crab", dubbed so by Sayuri due to his appearance. Unfortunately, Hatsumomo learns of the plan and tells Dr. Crab that Sayuri has already been deflowered. However, after gaining back the respect of Dr. Crab by convincing him that Hatsumomo is a known liar, he ultimately wins the bid for Sayuri's mizuage and she uses his record-breaking payment to cover all of her fees. This leads Mother, who had been poised to adopt Pumpkin as her heiress, to choose Sayuri instead, ultimately destroying the two girls' friendship. This turn of events enrages both Pumpkin and Hatsumomo for different reasons: Pumpkin was looking forward to the adoption so that she could have some form of security in her old age. Hatsumomo was eagerly anticipating to Pumpkin's adoption so she could secure her own position as head geisha and drive the up-and-coming Sayuri out of Gion. Hatsumomo's behavior begins to worsen past all excuse and she is eventually thrown out of the okiya, with Pumpkin leaving soon after.
Eventually it is revealed Dr. Crab was actually bidding against the Baron, Mameha's danna, for Sayuri's mizuage. The Baron had previously tried to sexually assault Sayuri, undressing her against her will at a party, which Mameha had warned against. Nobu instead bids to become Sayuri's danna, but loses out to General Tottori. At this time, Japan is on the brink of entering World War II and many Geisha are evacuated to other cities to work in factories, which require hard labor and are primary bomb targets. The General is demoted and is unable to use any influence to send Sayuri somewhere safer but Nobu, despite losing respect for Sayuri, is able to send her far north to live with Arashino, a kimono maker. At the end of the war, Nobu visits Sayuri and asks that she return to Gion to help entertain the new Deputy Minister Sato, whose aid can be instrumental in rebuilding Iwamura Electric, the company which the Chairman and Nobu run. Once returning to Gion, Sayuri helps Mother and Auntie clean up the okiya and shows kindness to the new girl they taken in to train under her. She also seeks the help of a homeless Pumpkin who is unhappy to see her again, but eventually agrees to help her entertain the Minister.
Sayuri, Mameha and Pumpkin entertain the Minister together regularly and within time, Nobu formally begins proposals to become Sayuri's danna. Sayuri still maintains strong feelings for the Chairman and doesn't want Nobu to become her danna, so on a weekend trip to the Amami Islands with Iwamura Electric, she plans to seduce the Minister and be caught in humiliation by Nobu. Mameha warns against her plans because it would disrespect him and tells her to accept him as her danna. Sayuri refuses and asks Pumpkin for one last favor to bring Nobu to a theater while she is with the Minister. Pumpkin agrees, but she still harbors resentment towards Sayuri for being adopted by Mother. Upon noticing her feelings towards the Chairman, Pumpkin purposely brings him to the theater instead. Sayuri is upset with her for betraying her because she wanted Nobu there to catch her with the Minister and confronts her for it. An enraged Pumpkin coldly tells Sayuri that she got what she deserved because she stole away her chances to be adopted by Mother, forcing her to be a prostitute in order to survive. She even mentions that she went out of her own way to help Sayuri in the past by making herself look bad in order to embarrass Hatsumomo. Pumpkin revealed that she intentionally brought the Chairman to catch Sayuri seducing the Minister so he will be disgusted by her behavior and she will be forced to accept Nobu as her danna.
Sayuri eventually meets the Chairman again and reveals that her acts in Amami were for personal reasons. He reveals to Sayuri that he had always had feelings towards her, despite her thinking he didn't, but explains that he felt it disrespectful to take away the woman his friend had showed so much interest in, especially considering Nobu had once saved the Chairman's company. He also reveals that he found out the truth after confronting Pumpkin and told Nobu afterwards, causing Nobu to cease becoming Sayuri's danna. Sayuri and the Chairman kiss, which she feels is her first kiss expressing true love.
Sayuri eventually retires from being a geisha and the Chairman becomes her danna. It is revealed that they have an illegitimate son together. Foreseeing the consequences this could have regarding the inheritance of Iwamura Electric, she relocates to New York City in later life. Here she opens her own small tea house for entertaining Japanese men on business in the United States, in which Mother takes a financial interest, but Sayuri severs her links to the Nitta okiya and in effect, Japan. The Chairman remains her danna until his death and the story concludes with a reflection on Sayuri/Chiyo and her life.
References to actual locations[edit]
Much of the novel is set in the popular geisha district of Gion in Kyoto, and contains references to actual places frequented by geisha and their patrons, such as the Ichiriki Ochaya. Part of the story is also set in the Amami Islands, and Sayuri narrates the story from her suite in the Waldorf towers in New York City.
Lawsuit[edit]
After the Japanese edition of the novel was published, Arthur Golden was sued for breach of contract and defamation of character by Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha he had interviewed for background information while writing the novel. The plaintiff asserted that Golden had agreed to protect her anonymity if she told him about her life as a geisha, due to the traditional code of silence about their clients. However, Golden listed Iwasaki as a source in his acknowledgments for the novel, causing her to face a serious backlash, to the point of death threats.[1] In his defence, Arthur Golden countered that he had tapes of his conversations with Iwasaki.[2] Eventually, in 2003, Golden's publisher settled with Iwasaki out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.
Iwasaki later went on to write an autobiography, which shows a very different picture of twentieth-century geisha life than the one shown in Golden's novel. The book was published as Geisha, a Life[3] in the U.S. and Geisha of Gion in the U.K.
Film version[edit]
Main article: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)
In 2005, film director Rob Marshall made a film version of the novel. It stars the Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi as Sayuri, Gong Li as Hatsumomo, and Michelle Yeoh (who is Malaysian Chinese) as Mameha; and Japanese actors Ken Watanabe as the Chairman, Suzuka Ohgo as Sayuri's childhood incarnation Chiyo, and Youki Kudoh as the adult Pumpkin.
Filming was primarily done in California, and in some locations in Kyoto, including Kiyomizu-dera and Fushimi Inari-taisha. It was nominated for and won numerous awards, including nominations for six Academy Awards, three of which – Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design – were won.
Marshall was criticised in Japan and the West for casting Chinese actresses to play Japanese characters in roles that have so much to do with traditional Japanese culture. However, in the special features of the DVD, it is noted that few Japanese actresses showed interest in being a part of the production. Film critic Roger Ebert also noted that Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh are some of the highest-grossing actresses in Japan itself, regularly outgrossing their Japanese counterparts.[4]
Legacy[edit]
This book has inspired many people around the world in art as also as in music, world-wide famous music artists such as Madonna in her 1999 music video for "Nothing Really Matters".
See also[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Books portal
Portal icon Japan portal
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Memoirs of a Geisha
Geisha
Oiran
Shirabyoshi
Footnotes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Richard Lloyd Barry (March 30, 2006). "The Queen and the Geisha". The Times (UK). Retrieved 2008-10-23.[dead link]
2.Jump up ^ A Geisha Scorned The Rough Guide to Japan: The Rough Guide, by Jan Dodd, Simon Richmond. Published by Rough Guides, 2001. ISBN 1-85828-699-9. Page 889.
3.Jump up ^ Tamara Weider (October 10, 2002). Remaking a memoir. Boston Phoenix. Accessed 2012-12-12.
4.Jump up ^ "Memoirs of a Geisha". Chicago Sun-Times.
References[edit]
McAlpin, Heller. "Night Butterflies; Memoirs of a Geisha". Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1997. Pg. 8.
Dalby, Liza. "Geisha". 1983. pp. 54–64 (prostitution); pp. 109–112 ("deflowering" and mizu-age).
 


Categories: 1997 novels
American historical novels
Debut novels
Novels set in Japan
Alfred A. Knopf books
American novels adapted into films
Novels about prostitution
Novels about geishas








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Memoirs of a Geisha (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Memoirs of a Geisha
Memoirs of a Geisha Poster.jpg
Teaser poster

Directed by
Rob Marshall
Produced by
Steven Spielberg
Gary Barber
Roger Birnbaum
Douglas Wick
Lucy Fisher
Written by
Robin Swicord
Based on
the novel Memoirs of a Geisha
 by Arthur Golden
Starring
Zhang Ziyi
Ken Watanabe
Gong Li
Michelle Yeoh
Music by
John Williams
Cinematography
Dion Beebe
Editing by
Pietro Scalia
Studio
Spyglass Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment
Red Wagon Productions
Distributed by
Columbia Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures
Release dates
November 29, 2005 (Tokyo premiere)
December 9, 2005 (United States)

Running time
145 minutes
Country
United States
 China
Language
English
 Japanese
Budget
$85 million
Box office
$162,242,962
Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 film adaptation of the novel of the same name, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Spyglass Entertainment and by Douglas Wick's Red Wagon Productions. The picture was directed by Rob Marshall and was released in the United States on December 9, 2005 by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo. Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the movie, which was filmed in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine, the last film by Spyglass Entertainment teamed up with Buena Vista International for the Worldwide, before StudioCanal UK took over.
Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of a young girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold to an okiya, a geisha house by her family. Her new family then sends her off to school to become a geisha. This movie is mainly about older Chiyo and her struggle as a geisha to find love, in the process making a lot of enemies. The film was nominated and won numerous awards, including nominations for six Academy Awards, and eventually won three: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.
The Japanese release of the film was titled Sayuri, the titular character's geisha name.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Pre-production
3.2 Production
3.3 Post-production
4 Reception 4.1 Western box office and reviews
4.2 Casting controversy
4.3 Chinese responses
5 Awards and nominations
6 Soundtrack album
7 Interviews
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
The film tells the story of Chiyo Sakamoto, a poor Japanese girl who has been sold along with her older sister Satsu into a life of servitude by her parents. Chiyo is taken in by the proprietress of a geisha house, Mother (Kaori Momoi), but Satsu is rejected and is sold to another house in the "pleasure district" of the Hanamachi. At the okiya, she meets another young girl named Pumpkin (Youki Kudoh), and also has numerous unpleasant run-ins with the okiya's senior geisha Hatsumomo (Gong Li).
Chiyo conspires with Satsu to flee from their new lives. She returns to the okiya and discovers Hatsumomo in the shed having sex with her boyfriend, Koichi. Koichi runs off and Hatsumomo frames Chiyo for stealing, but Chiyo informs Mother of what she saw in the shed and Hatsumomo is banned from seeing Koichi. On the night of their planned escape, Chiyo falls off of a rooftop and is injured. Mother finds out about Chiyo's attempt, therefore she stops paying for Chiyo's geisha training, and informs her that her parents are dead. Chiyo never sees Satsu again. Chiyo is then demoted to working as a slave to pay off her debts to Mother.
One day, the young Chiyo is noticed by the Chairman (Ken Watanabe) and his geisha companions. He then buys her an iced sorbet and gives her his handkerchief with some money in it. Inspired by his act of kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of the Chairman's life.
Several years later Chiyo is taken under the wing of Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), one of Kyoto's most successful geisha. Under Mameha's tutelage, Chiyo becomes a maiko and then takes the name of Sayuri. Hatsumomo becomes Sayuri's rival and seeks to destroy her. Sayuri reunites with the Chairman and longs to catch his attention. Sayuri grows in popularity and Hatsumomo spreads lies and rumors to ruin Sayuri's reputation. Meanwhile, Mameha starts a bidding war for Sayuri's mizuage, which will make her a full geisha. Sayuri gets named the lead dancer for a popular performance, where she catches the attention of bidders, including the Baron (Mameha's danna). The Baron invites Sayuri to his house for a party. When the Baron shows a kimono to Sayuri, he undresses her in order to "take a look". Sayuri returns to Kyoto where Mameha learns of the assault and fears that Sayuri is now worthless, despite Sayuri saying she isn't.
That evening, Sayuri wins the bidding with fifteen thousand yen. Mother, seeing Sayuri as a financial opportunity names her as her adopted daughter and heiress to the okiya. This crushes Pumpkin, who was hoping that she would get adopted and Hatsumomo is enraged when Mother informs that Hatsumomo is more like a prostitute. Mameha later tells Sayuri that the bid was down to two people, Dr. Crab and the Baron. Mameha let it go to Dr. Crab because of her romantic feelings for the Baron, despite his bid being even higher. When returning home from the mizuage ceremony, Sayuri finds Hatsumomo in her room, where she has found the Chairman's handkerchief and they fight. During the fight, a gas lighter ignites a fire and the okiya is partially destroyed. Hatsumomo leaves the okiya for good.
Sayuri's prosperous life is cut short by the outbreak of World War II. Sayuri and Mameha are separated, with Sayuri going to the hills to work for a kimono maker. After the war, Sayuri is reunited with Mameha, and they become geisha once more to impress an American Colonel that is going into business with Nobu and the Chairman. Sayuri meets back up with Pumpkin, who is now a flirty escort. Sayuri goes on a trip with Nobu, the Chairman, Pumpkin and the Americans to the Amami Islands.
At Amami, the Colonel proposes Sayuri, but is rejected. Nobu witnesses the incident and confronts Sayuri. He finally confesses his feelings that he wants to become her danna. Sayuri is distraught and devises a plan to humiliate herself with the Colonel in front of Nobu. But because of her secret resentment of Sayuri, Pumpkin brings the Chairman instead, knowing that it would devastate Sayuri.
A few days later, after returning to Gion, Sayuri receives a call to go to the teahouse. While waiting, Sayuri expects Nobu to arrive, but instead the Chairman comes where he finally reveals to her that he knows she is Chiyo. He tells her that Nobu had learned about the affair and ceased being her danna. He also reveals that he was responsible for sending Mameha to her so that she could fulfill her dreams of becoming a geisha. Sayuri finally reveals her love to the Chairman, which she has been harbouring for over twenty years. The film ends with their loving embrace and kiss and a stroll through a beautiful Japanese garden.
Cast[edit]
Zhang Ziyi as Chiyo Sakamoto/Sayuri Nitta
Suzuka Ohgo as Young Chiyo Sakamoto
Gong Li as Hatsumomo
Samantha Futerman as Satsu
Kaori Momoi as Okasan/Mother
Ken Watanabe as Chairman Iwamura Ken
Michelle Yeoh as Mameha
Kōji Yakusho as Nobu
Youki Kudoh as Pumpkin
Tsai Chin as Auntie
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Baron
Cathy Shim as The Baron's Guest
Kenneth Tsang as General
Karl Yune as Koichi
Ted Levine as Colonel Derricks
Paul Adelstein as Lieutenant Hutchins
Production[edit]
Pre-production[edit]
Producer Steven Spielberg had been scheduled to direct Memoirs of a Geisha as the follow-up to Saving Private Ryan. However fellow DreamWorks executive David Geffen had tried to persuade him not to take on the project as he said, "I don't think it's good enough for him". Whether or not he was dissuaded from the project, he went on to direct A.I. Artificial Intelligence instead.[1]
The three leading non-Japanese actresses (Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh) were put through "geisha boot camp" before production commenced, during which they were trained in traditional geisha practices of musicianship, dance, and tea ceremony.
Production[edit]



 The orange gateways at the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, used in a scene wherein a young Chiyo runs through them
Production of the film took place from September 29, 2004 to January 31, 2005. It was decided by the producers that contemporary Japan looked much too modern to film a story which took place in the 1920s and '30s and it would be more cost-effective to create sets for the film on soundstages and locations in the United States, primarily in California. The majority of the film was shot on a large set built on a ranch in Thousand Oaks, California which was a detailed recreation of an early twentieth-century geisha district in Kyoto, Japan. Most interior scenes were filmed in Culver City, California at the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Other locations in California included San Francisco, Moss Beach, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, Sacramento, Yamashiro's Restaurant in Hollywood, the Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, and Downtown Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater on Hill Street. Towards the end of production, some scenes were shot in Kyoto, Japan, including the Fushimi Inari Taisha the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto.
Post-production[edit]
In post-production, one of the tasks of the sound editors was to improve upon the English pronunciation of the international cast. This sometimes involved piecing together different clips of dialogue from other segments of the film to form new syllables from the film's actors, some of whom spoke partially phonetic English when they performed their roles on-set. The achievement of the sound editors earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
Reception[edit]
In the Western hemisphere, the film received mixed reviews. In China and Japan, responses were sometimes very negative due to various controversies that arose from the film's casting and its relationship to history.
Western box office and reviews[edit]
The British reviews for Memoirs of a Geisha were generally mixed. The New Statesman criticized Memoirs of a Geisha's plot, saying that after Hatsumomo leaves, "the plot loses what little momentum it had and breaks down into one pretty visual after another" and says that the film version "abandons the original's scholarly mien to reveal the soap opera bubbling below".[2] The Journal praised Ziyi, saying that she "exudes a heartbreaking innocence and vulnerablity" but said "too much of the character's yearning and despair is concealed behind the mask of white powder and rouge".[3] London's The Evening Standard compared Memoirs of a Geisha to Cinderella and praised Gong Li, saying that "Li may be playing the loser of the piece but she saves this film" and Gong "endows Hatsumomo with genuine mystery".[4] Eighteen days later, The Evening Standard put Memoirs of a Geisha on its Top Ten Films list.[5] Glasgow's Daily Record praised the film, saying the "geisha world is drawn with such intimate detail that it seems timeless until the war, and with it the modern world comes crashing in".[6]
In the United States, the film managed $57 million during its box office run. The film peaked at 1,654 screens,[citation needed] facing off against King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Fun with Dick and Jane. During its first week in limited release, the film screening in only eight theaters tallied up an $85,313 per theater average which made it second in highest per theater averages behind Brokeback Mountain for 2005.[citation needed] International gross reached $158 million.[7]
Overall, the American reviews were mixed. Illinois' Daily Herald said that the "[s]trong acting, meticulously created sets, beautiful visuals, and a compelling story of a celebrity who can't have the one thing she really wants make Geisha memorable".[8] The Washington Times called the film "a sumptuously faithful and evocative adaption" while adding that "[c]ontrasting dialects may remain a minor nuisance for some spectators, but the movie can presumably count on the pictorial curiosity of readers who enjoyed Mr. Golden's sense of immersion, both harrowing and [a]esthetic, in the culture of a geisha upbringing in the years that culminated in World War II".[9]
The film scored a 35% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus stated "Less nuanced than its source material, Memoirs of a Geisha may be a lavish production, but it still carries the simplistic air of a soap opera."[10] On Metacritic, the film was given a 54/100 meaning "mixed or average review."[11]
Casting controversy[edit]
Controversy arose during casting of the film when some of the most prominent roles, including those of the geisha Sayuri, Hatsumomo and Mameha, did not go to Japanese actresses. Zhang Ziyi (Sayuri) and Gong Li (Hatsumomo) are both Chinese, whereas Michelle Yeoh (Mameha) is an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia. More notable is the fact that all three were already prominent fixtures in Chinese cinema.
The film-makers defended the decision, however, and attributed "acting ability and star power" as their main priorities in casting the roles and director Rob Marshall noted examples such as Irish-Mexican actor Anthony Quinn being cast as a Greek man in Zorba the Greek.[12]
Opinion in the Asian community was mixed. To some Chinese, the casting was offensive because they mistook geisha for prostitutes, and because it revived memories of wartime Japanese atrocities.[citation needed] The Chinese government canceled the film's release there because of such connections, and a website denounced star Zhang Ziyi as an "embarrassment to China."[13] This was exacerbated by the word "geigi" (芸妓?), a Japanese name for geisha used in the Kantō region, which includes Tokyo. The second character (妓) could sometimes mean "prostitute" in Japanese language, though it actually had a variety of meanings and there was a clear distinction between geisha and prostitutes which were called "Yūjo" (遊女?). The character 妓 only means "prostitute" in Chinese, and the correct translation into Chinese of the word "geisha" is 艺伎 (traditional Chinese: 藝伎), which does not use it. Some Japanese have expressed offense that people of their own nationality had not gotten the roles. Other Asians defended the casting, including the film's main Japanese star Ken Watanabe who said that "talent is more important than nationality."[14]
In defense of the film, Zhang spoke:
“ A director is only interested in casting someone he believes is appropriate for a role. For instance, my character had to go from age 15 to 35; she had to be able to dance, and she had to be able to act, so he needed someone who could do all that. I also think that regardless of whether someone is Japanese or Chinese or Korean, we all would have had to learn what it is to be a geisha, because almost nobody today knows what that means—not even the Japanese actors on the film.
Geisha was not meant to be a documentary. I remember seeing in the Chinese newspaper a piece that said we had only spent six weeks to learn everything and that that was not respectful toward the culture. It's like saying that if you're playing a mugger, you have to rob a certain number of people. To my mind, what this issue is all about, though, is the intense historical problems between China and Japan. The whole subject is a land mine. Maybe one of the reasons people made such a fuss about Geisha was that they were looking for a way to vent their anger.[15]
 ”
Film critic Roger Ebert pointed out that the film was made by a Japanese-owned company, and that Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi outgross any Japanese actress even in the Japanese box office.[16]
Chinese responses[edit]
The film received some hostile responses in Mainland China, including its banning by the People's Republic of China. Relations between Japan and Mainland China were particularly tense due to two main factors: Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a number of visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors all Japan's war dead, including some who were convicted war criminals, which was denounced by China's foreign ministry as honoring them; and China helped to ensure Japan did not receive a seat on the UN Security Council.[17] Writer Hong Ying argued that "Art should be above national politics".[18] Nevertheless, the release of Memoirs of a Geisha into this politically charged situation added to cultural conflict within and between China and Japan.
The film was originally scheduled to be shown in cinemas in the People's Republic of China on February 9, 2006. The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television decided to ban the film on February 1, 2006, considering the film as "too sensitive". In doing so, it overturned a November decision to approve the film for screening.[19]
The film is set in Japan during World War Two, when the Second Sino-Japanese War was taking place. During this time, Japan captured and forced Chinese women as "comfort women" for their men.[20] Controversy arose in China from an apparent confusion of equating geisha with prostitution, and thus the connection with, and reminder of, comfort women being used in Japan at that time.
Newspaper sources, such as the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post and the Shanghai Youth Daily, quoted the fears that the film may be banned by censors; there were concerns that the casting of Chinese actresses as geishas could rouse anti-Japan sentiment and stir up feelings over Japanese wartime actions in China, especially the use of Chinese women as forced sex workers.[21][22]
Awards and nominations[edit]
Academy Awards[23]
Won: Best Art Direction (John Myhre and Gretchen Rau)
Won: Best Cinematography (Dion Beebe)
Won: Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood)
Nominated: Best Original Score (John Williams)
Nominated: Best Sound Editing (Wylie Stateman)
Nominated: Best Sound Mixing (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline and John Pritchett)
Golden Globe
Won: Best Original Score (John Williams)
Nominated: Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama (Zhang Ziyi)
National Board of Review
Won: Best Supporting Actress (Gong Li)
Satellite Awards
Won: Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted (Robin Swicord)
Nominated: Outstanding Motion Picture, Drama
Nominated: Outstanding Director (Rob Marshall)
Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama (Zhang Ziyi)
Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama (Gong Li)
Nominated: Outstanding Art Direction & Production Design (John Myhre)
Nominated: Outstanding Cinematography (Robert Elswit)
Nominated: Outstanding Costume Design (Colleen Atwood)
Nominated: Outstanding Original Score (John Williams)
BAFTA Awards
Won: The Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music (John Williams)
Won: Cinematography (Dion Beebe)
Won: Costume Design (Colleen Atwood)
Nominated: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Zhang Ziyi)
Nominated: Production design
Nominated: Make Up and Hair
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Nominated: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role (Zhang Ziyi)
NAACP Image Awards
Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture (Zhang Ziyi)
Soundtrack album[edit]

Memoirs of a Geisha OST

Soundtrack album by John Williams

Released
November 22, 2005
Genre
Soundtrack
Length
61:02
Label
Sony Classical
The Memoirs of a Geisha official soundtrack featured Yo-Yo Ma performing the cello solos, as well as Itzhak Perlman performing the violin solos. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, who won his fourth Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
1."Sayuri's Theme" – 1:31
2."The Journey to the Hanamachi" – 4:06
3."Going to School" – 2:42
4."Brush on Silk" – 2:31
5."Chiyo's Prayer" – 3:36
6."Becoming a Geisha" – 4:32
7."Finding Satsu" – 3:44
8."The Chairman's Waltz" – 2:39
9."The Rooftops of the Hanamachi" – 3:49
10."The Garden Meeting" – 2:44
11."Dr. Crab's Prize" – 2:18
12."Destiny's Path" – 3:20
13."A New Name... A New Life" – 3:33
14."The Fire Scene and the Coming of War" – 6:48
15."As the Water..." – 2:01
16."Confluence" – 3:42
17."A Dream Discarded" – 2:00
18."Sayuri's Theme and End Credits" – 5:06
Interviews[edit]
Ziyi Zhang Memoirs of a Geisha
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Interview with Spielberg, Stephen J. Dubner, Steven Spielberg Interviews, ISBN 1-57806-113-X
2.Jump up ^ Lyttle, John. "The Eastern Affront: This Depiction of Oppression Is Decorously Polite." New Statesman Jan. 16, 2006: 47.
3.Jump up ^ "Memoirs of a Geisha". The Journal (Newcastle, England) Jan. 13, 2006: 20.
4.Jump up ^ "Dazzled by the Tricks of an Exotic Trade." The Evening Standard (London, England) Jan. 12, 2006: 34.
5.Jump up ^ "Critic's Choice; Top Ten Films." The Evening Standard (London, England) Jan. 30, 2006: 40.
6.Jump up ^ "GLAD TO BE GEISHA; Beautifully Shot and Brilliantly Acted, This Is an Oscar Favourite MEMOIRS OF A GEISH A ***** 12A." Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) Jan. 13, 2006: 46.
7.Jump up ^ "Memoirs of a Geisha". The Numbers: Box Office Data. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
8.Jump up ^ Defiglio, Pam. "Memorable Epic Takes a Beautiful Look Inside a Mysterious World". Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Dec. 16, 2005: 48.
9.Jump up ^ "'Geisha' Rises to Exotic Best; Faithful Book Adaptation Portrays Rivalry of Women." The Washington Times Dec. 16, 2005: D08.
10.Jump up ^ "Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
11.Jump up ^ "Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)". Metacritic. Retrieved April 15, 2007.
12.Jump up ^ "Geisha film-makers defend casting". BBC News. December 8, 2005. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
13.Jump up ^ "China cancels release of 'Memoirs of a Geisha'". USA Today. February 1, 2006. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
14.Jump up ^ "Watanabe defends casting in 'Geisha' - Boston.com".[dead link]
15.Jump up ^ "Zhang Ziyi at HelloZiyi.us - Interview magazine July 2006". Helloziyi.us. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
16.Jump up ^ "Memoirs of a Geisha". Chicago Sun-Times.
17.Jump up ^ Britannica Online Encyclopaedia/China's Relations with Its Neighbours/Year in Review 2005>
18.Jump up ^ CHINA:'Memoirs of a Geisha' Lost in Political Din
19.Jump up ^ "China bans Memoirs of a Geisha". The Guardian (London). February 1, 2006. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
20.Jump up ^ World History Connected/Vol.1 No.1/Yoshiko Nozaki: "I'm Here Alive": History, Testimony, and the Japanese Controversy over "Comfort Women".
21.Jump up ^ – Yahoo! News
22.Jump up ^ "Lee slates China 'ban' on actress". BBC News. March 20, 2008.
23.Jump up ^ "The 78th Academy Awards (2006) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
External links[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Film portal
Portal icon Japan portal
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Memoirs of a Geisha
Official website
Memoirs of a Geisha at the Internet Movie Database
Memoirs of a Geisha at allmovie
Memoirs of a Geisha at Box Office Mojo
Memoirs of a Geisha at Rotten Tomatoes


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American Beauty (film)
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This article is about the 1999 comedy-drama film. For the lost 1927 silent film, see American Beauty (1927 film).

American Beauty
Poster image of a woman's abdomen with her hand holding a rose against it.
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Sam Mendes
Produced by
Bruce Cohen
Dan Jinks
Written by
Alan Ball
Starring
Kevin Spacey
Annette Bening
Thora Birch
Allison Janney
Peter Gallagher
Chris Cooper
Music by
Thomas Newman
Cinematography
Conrad Hall
Editing by
Tariq Anwar
Christopher Greenbury
Studio
Jinks/Cohen Company
Distributed by
DreamWorks Pictures
Release dates
September 8, 1999 (Los Angeles premiere)
September 17, 1999 (United States, limited)

Running time
121 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$15 million
Box office
$356,296,601[1]
American Beauty is a 1999 American comedy-drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as office worker Lester Burnham, who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). Annette Bening co-stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane; Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney also feature. The film has been described by academics as a satire of American middle class notions of beauty and personal satisfaction; analysis has focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption.
Ball began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus around the Amy Fisher trial in 1992. He shelved the play after realizing the story would not work on stage. After several years as a television screenwriter, Ball revived the idea in 1997 when attempting to break into the film industry. The modified script had a cynical outlook that was influenced by Ball's frustrating tenures writing for several sitcoms. Producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen took American Beauty to DreamWorks; the fledgling film studio bought Ball's script for $250,000, outbidding several other production bodies. DreamWorks financed the $15 million production and served as the North American distributor. American Beauty marked acclaimed theater director Mendes' film debut; courted after his successful productions of the musicals Oliver! and Cabaret, Mendes was nevertheless only given the job after twenty others were considered and several "A-list" directors turned down the opportunity.
Spacey was Mendes' first choice for the role of Lester, even though DreamWorks had urged the director to consider better-known actors; similarly, the studio suggested several actors for the role of Carolyn until Mendes offered the part to Bening without DreamWorks' knowledge. Principal photography took place between December 1998 and February 1999 on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California and on location in Los Angeles. Mendes' dominant style was deliberate and composed; he made extensive use of static shots and slow pans and zooms to generate tension. Cinematographer Conrad Hall complemented Mendes' style with peaceful shot compositions to contrast with the turbulent on-screen events. During editing, Mendes made several changes that gave the film a less cynical tone.
Released in North America on September 15, 1999, American Beauty was positively received by critics and audiences alike; it was the best-reviewed American film of the year and grossed over $350 million worldwide. Reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with particular emphasis on Mendes, Spacey and Ball; criticism tended to focus on the familiarity of the characters and setting. DreamWorks launched a major campaign to increase American Beauty's chances of Academy Award success; at the 72nd Academy Awards the following year, the film won Best Picture for Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, Best Director for Sam Mendes, Best Actor for Kevin Spacey, Best Original Screenplay for Alan Ball, and Best Cinematography for Conrad L. Hall.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Themes and analysis 2.1 Multiple interpretations
2.2 Imprisonment and redemption
2.3 Conformity and beauty
2.4 Sexuality and repression
2.5 Temporality and music
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Writing
3.3 Casting
3.4 Filming
3.5 Editing
3.6 Cinematography
3.7 Music
4 Release 4.1 Publicity
4.2 Theatrical run
4.3 Home media
5 Critical reception
6 Accolades
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
Lester Burnham is a middle-aged office worker who despises his job. His wife, Carolyn, is an ambitious real-estate broker; their sixteen-year-old daughter, Jane, abhors her parents and has low self-esteem. The Burnhams' new neighbors are retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts and his introverted wife, Barbara. Their teenage son, Ricky, is a secret marijuana smoker and drug dealer whom the colonel subjects to a strict disciplinarian lifestyle. Ricky, who had been forced into a military academy and mental hospital, spends time recording his surroundings with a camcorder; he keeps dozens of taped videos in his bedroom.
Lester becomes infatuated with Jane's cheerleader friend, Angela Hayes, after seeing her perform a half-time dance routine at a high school basketball game. He begins to have sexual fantasies about Angela, during which red rose petals are a recurring motif. Carolyn begins an affair with a business rival, Buddy Kane. When Lester is about to be laid off his job, he blackmails his boss for $60,000 and quits, taking employment serving fast food. He buys his dream car (a 1970 Pontiac Firebird) and starts working out after he overhears Angela tell Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he improved his physique. He begins smoking marijuana bought from Ricky and flirts with Angela whenever she visits Jane. Jane becomes involved with Ricky and they bond over what Ricky considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag dancing in the wind.
Lester discovers Carolyn's infidelity, but reacts indifferently. Buddy ends the affair, saying he is facing an expensive divorce. Frank becomes suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship and finds his son's footage of Lester lifting weights while nude, which Ricky captured by chance and leads Frank to believe Ricky is gay. Carolyn becomes distraught, loads a gun, and drives home. That night, after watching Ricky and Lester through Lester's garage window, Frank mistakenly concludes the pair are sexually involved. He later beats Ricky and after Ricky falsely admits the charge, he goads his father into kicking him out of the family home. Ricky convinces Jane to flee with him to New York City and tells the vain Angela she is ordinary.
Frank confronts Lester and attempts to kiss him; Lester rebuffs the colonel, who leaves. Lester finds a distraught Angela, who begins to seduce him. After learning that Angela is a virgin, Lester stops and comforts her; the pair instead bond over their shared frustrations. Angela goes to the bathroom and Lester smiles at a family photograph of himself, his wife, and Jane in happier times in his kitchen. A gunshot sounds and blood splatters on the wall. Ricky and Jane find Lester's body. Carolyn is seen crying in the bedroom, and Frank returns home, bloodied, a gun missing from his collection. Lester's closing narration describes meaningful experiences during his life; he says that despite his death he is happy, as there's so much beauty in the world.
Themes and analysis[edit]
Multiple interpretations[edit]
Academics have offered many possible readings of American Beauty; film critics are similarly divided, not so much about the quality of the film as their interpretations of it.[2] Described by many as about "the meaning of life" or "gender identification" or "the hollow existence of the American suburbs",[3] the film has defied categorization by even the filmmakers. Mendes is indecisive, saying the script seemed to be about something different each time he read it: "a mystery story, a kaleidoscopic journey through American suburbia, a series of love stories ... it was about imprisonment ... loneliness [and] beauty. It was funny; it was angry, sad."[4] The literary critic and author Wayne C. Booth concludes that the film resists any one interpretation: "[American Beauty] cannot be adequately summarized as 'here is a satire on what's wrong with American life'; that plays down the celebration of beauty. It is more tempting to summarize it as 'a portrait of the beauty underlying American miseries and misdeeds'; but that plays down the scenes of cruelty and horror, and Ball's disgust with our mores. It cannot be summarized with either Lester's or Ricky's philosophical statements about what life is or how one should live ..."[2] He argues that the problem of interpreting the film is tied with that of finding its center—a controlling voice who "[unites] all of the choices".[nb 1][4] He contends that in American Beauty's case it is neither Mendes nor Ball.[5] Mendes considers the voice to be Ball's, but even while the writer was "strongly influential" on set,[4] he often had to accept deviations from his vision,[5] particularly ones that transformed the cynical tone of his script into something more optimistic.[6] With "innumerable voices intruding on the original author's," Booth says, those who interpret American Beauty "have forgotten to probe for the elusive center". According to Booth, the film's true controller is the creative energy "that hundreds of people put into its production, agreeing and disagreeing, inserting and cutting".[2]
Imprisonment and redemption[edit]

A computer monitor on a busy cubicle desk. The monitor displays a spreadsheet in seven columns which span the height of the screen. The monitor also shows the reflection of a middle-aged man in a shirt and tie, sitting close to the desk and wearing a telephone headset. The contrasts—the monitor's dark background, and the lightness of the text and the man's shirt—make the reflection more prominent between and behind the numbers.

 Lester's reflection in the monitor is intended to resemble a man in a jail cell, evoking the director's intended theme of imprisonment and escape from imprisonment.[7][8]
Mendes called American Beauty a rites of passage film about imprisonment and escape from imprisonment. The monotony of Lester's existence is established through his gray, nondescript workplace and characterless clothing.[7] In these scenes, he is often framed as if trapped, "reiterating rituals that hardly please him". He masturbates in the confines of his shower;[9] the shower stall evokes a jail cell and the shot is the first of many where Lester is confined behind bars or within frames,[7][8] such as when he is reflected behind columns of numbers on a computer monitor, "confined [and] nearly crossed out".[9] The academic and author Jody W. Pennington argues that Lester's journey is the story's center.[10] His sexual reawakening through meeting Angela is the first of several turning points as he begins to "[throw] off the responsibilities of the comfortable life he has come to despise".[11] After Lester shares a joint with Ricky, his spirit is released and he begins to rebel against Carolyn.[12] Changed by Ricky's "attractive, profound confidence", Lester is convinced that Angela is attainable and sees that he must question his "banal, numbingly materialist suburban existence"; he takes a job at a fast-food outlet, which allows him to regress to a point when he could "see his whole life ahead of him".[13]
When Lester is caught masturbating by Carolyn, his angry retort about their lack of intimacy is the first time he says aloud what he thinks about her.[14] By confronting the issue and Carolyn's "superficial investments in others", Lester is trying to "regain a voice in a home that [only respects] the voices of mother and daughter".[13] His final turning point comes when he and Angela almost have sex;[15] after she confesses her virginity, he no longer thinks of her as a sex object, but as a daughter.[16] He holds her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". With these final scenes, Mendes intended to show Lester at the conclusion of a "mythical quest". After Lester gets a beer from the refrigerator, the camera pushes toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which he walks "to meet his fate".[15][17] Having begun to act his age again, Lester achieves closure.[16] As he smiles at a family photo, the camera pans slowly from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; the slow pan reflects the peace of Lester's death.[18] His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found where it is least expected.[19]
Conformity and beauty[edit]
Like other American films of 1999—such as Fight Club, Bringing Out the Dead and Magnolia—American Beauty instructs its audience to "[lead] more meaningful lives".[20] The film argues the case against conformity, but does not deny that people need and want it; even the gay characters just want to fit in.[21] Jim and Jim, the Burnhams' other neighbors, are a satire of "gay bourgeois coupledom",[22] who "[invest] in the numbing sameness" that the film criticizes in heterosexual couples.[nb 2][23] The feminist academic and author Sally R. Munt argues that American Beauty uses its "art house" trappings to direct its message of non-conformity primarily to the middle classes, and that this approach is a "cliché of bourgeois preoccupation ... the underlying premise being that the luxury of finding an individual 'self' through denial and renunciation is always open to those wealthy enough to choose, and sly enough to present themselves sympathetically as a rebel."[11]
Professor Roy M. Anker argues that the film's thematic center is its direction to the audience to "look closer". The opening combines an unfamiliar viewpoint of the Burnhams' neighborhood with Lester's narrated admission that he will soon die, forcing audiences to consider their own mortality and the beauty around them.[24] It also sets a series of mysteries; Anker asks, "from what place exactly, and from what state of being, is he telling this story? ... if he's already dead, why bother with whatever it is he wishes to tell about his last year of being alive? ... There is also the question of how Lester has died—or will die." Anker believes the preceding scene—Jane's discussion with Ricky about the possibility of his killing her father—adds further mystery.[25] Professor Ann C. Hall disagrees; she says by presenting an early resolution to the mystery, the film allows the audience to put it aside "to view the film and its philosophical issues".[26] Through this examination of Lester's life, rebirth and death, American Beauty satirizes American middle class notions of meaning, beauty and satisfaction.[27] Even Lester's transformation only comes about because of the possibility of sex with Angela; he therefore remains a "willing devotee of the popular media's exultation of pubescent male sexuality as a route to personal wholeness".[28] Carolyn is similarly driven by conventional views of happiness; from her belief in "house beautiful" domestic bliss to her car and gardening outfit, Carolyn's domain is a "fetching American millennial vision of Pleasantville, or Eden".[29] The Burnhams are unaware that they are "materialists philosophically, and devout consumers ethically" who expect the "rudiments of American beauty" to give them happiness. Anker argues that "they are helpless in the face of the prettified economic and sexual stereotypes ... that they and their culture have designated for their salvation."[30]
The film presents Ricky as its "visionary ... its spiritual and mystical center".[31] He sees beauty in the minutiae of everyday life, videoing as much as he can for fear of missing it. He shows Jane what he considers the most beautiful thing he has filmed: a plastic bag, tossing in the wind in front of a wall. He says capturing the moment was when he realized that there was "an entire life behind things"; he feels that "sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it ... and my heart is going to cave in." Anker argues that Ricky, in looking past the "cultural dross", has "[grasped] the radiant splendor of the created world" to see God.[32] As the film progresses, the Burnhams move closer to Ricky's view of the world.[33] Lester only forswears personal satisfaction at the film's end. On the cusp of having sex with Angela, he returns to himself after she admits her virginity. Suddenly confronted with a child, he begins to treat her as a daughter; in doing so Lester sees himself, Angela and his family "for the poor and fragile but wondrous creatures they are". He looks at a picture of his family in happier times,[34] and dies having had an epiphany that infuses him with "wonder, joy, and soul-shaking gratitude"—he has finally seen the world as it is.[27]
According to Patti Bellantoni, colors are used symbolically throughout the film,[35] none more so than red, which is an important thematic signature that drives the story and "[defines] Lester's arc". First seen in drab colors that reflect his passivity, Lester surrounds himself with red as he regains his individuality.[36] The American Beauty rose is repeatedly used as symbol; when Lester fantasizes about Angela, she is usually naked and surrounded by rose petals. In these scenes, the rose symbolizes Lester's desire for her. When associated with Carolyn, the rose represents a "façade for suburban success".[10] Roses are included in almost every shot inside the Burnhams' home, where they signify "a mask covering a bleak, unbeautiful reality".[30] Carolyn feels that "as long as there can be roses, all is well".[30] She cuts the roses and puts them in vases,[10] where they adorn her "meretricious vision of what makes for beauty"[30] and begin to die.[10] The roses in the vase in the Angela–Lester seduction scene symbolize Lester's previous life and Carolyn; the camera pushes in as Lester and Angela get closer, finally taking the roses—and thus Carolyn—out of the shot.[15] Lester's epiphany at the end of the film is expressed via rain and the use of red, building to a crescendo that is a deliberate contrast to the release Lester feels.[37] The constant use of red "lulls [the audience] subliminally" into becoming used to it; consequently, it leaves the audience unprepared when Lester is shot and his blood spatters on the wall.[36]
Sexuality and repression[edit]
Pennington argues that American Beauty defines its characters through their sexuality. Lester's attempts to relive his youth are a direct result of his lust for Angela,[10] and the state of his relationship with Carolyn is in part shown through their lack of sexual contact. Also sexually frustrated, Carolyn has an affair that takes her from "cold perfectionist" to a more carefree soul who "[sings] happily along with" the music in her car.[38] Jane and Angela constantly reference sex, through Angela's descriptions of her supposed sexual encounters and the way the girls address each other.[38] Their nude scenes are used to communicate their vulnerability.[15][39] By the end of the film, Angela's hold on Jane has weakened until the only power she has over her friend is Lester's attraction to her.[40] Col. Fitts reacts with disgust to meeting Jim and Jim; he asks, "How come these faggots always have to rub it in your face? How can they be so shameless?" To which Ricky replies, "That's the thing, Dad—they don't feel like it's anything to be ashamed of." Pennington argues that Col. Fitts' reaction is not homophobic, but an "anguished self-interrogation".[41]
With other turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club, In the Company of Men (1997), American Psycho (2000) and Boys Don't Cry (1999), American Beauty "raises the broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis".[42] Professor Vincent Hausmann charges that in their reinforcement of masculinity "against threats posed by war, by consumerism, and by feminist and queer challenges", these films present a need to "focus on, and even to privilege" aspects of maleness "deemed 'deviant'". Lester's transformation conveys "that he, and not the woman, has borne the brunt of [lack of being]"[nb 3] and he will not stand for being emasculated.[43] Lester's attempts to "strengthen traditional masculinity" conflict with his responsibilities as a father. Although the film portrays the way Lester returns to that role positively, he does not become "the hypermasculine figure implicitly celebrated in films like Fight Club". Hausmann concludes that Lester's behavior toward Angela is "a misguided but nearly necessary step toward his becoming a father again".[9]
Hausmann says the film "explicitly affirms the importance of upholding the prohibition against incest";[44] a recurring theme of Ball's work is his comparison of the taboos against incest and homosexuality.[45] Instead of making an overt distinction, American Beauty looks at how their repression can lead to violence.[46] Col. Fitts is so ashamed of his homosexuality that it drives him to murder Lester.[41] Ball said, "The movie is in part about how homophobia is based in fear and repression and about what [they] can do."[47] The film implies two unfulfilled incestuous desires:[21] Lester's pursuit of Angela is a manifestation of his lust for his own daughter,[48] while Col. Fitts' repression is exhibited through the almost sexualized discipline with which he controls Ricky.[21] Consequently, Ricky realizes that he can only hurt his father by falsely telling him he is homosexual.[40] Col. Fitts represents Ball's father,[49] whose repressed homosexual desires led to his own unhappiness.[50] Ball rewrote Col. Fitts to delay revealing him as homosexual, which Munt reads as a possible "deferment of Ball's own patriarchal-incest fantasies".[46]
Temporality and music[edit]
American Beauty follows a traditional narrative structure, only deviating with the displaced opening scene of Jane and Ricky from the middle of the story. Although the plot spans one year, the film is narrated by Lester at the moment of his death. Dr Jacqueline Furby says that the plot "occupies ... no time [or] all time", citing Lester's claim that life did not flash before his eyes, but that it "stretches on forever like an ocean of time".[51] Furby argues that a "rhythm of repetition" forms the core of the film's structure.[52] For example, two scenes see the Burnhams sitting down to an evening meal, shot from the same angle. Each image is broadly similar, with minor differences in object placement and body language that reflect the changed dynamic brought on by Lester's new-found assertiveness.[53][54] Another example is the pair of scenes in which Jane and Ricky film each other. Ricky films Jane from his bedroom window as she removes her bra, and the image is reversed later for a similarly "voyeuristic and exhibitionist" scene in which Jane films Ricky at a vulnerable moment.[51]


File:American Beauty gymnasium.ogv


 Lester's fixation on Angela is given life by the non-diegetic score, which creates and maintains the narrative stasis of his fantasy.[55]
Lester's fantasies are emphasized by slow motion and repetitive motion shots;[56] Mendes uses double-and-triple cut backs in several sequences,[14][57] and the score alters to make the audience aware that it is entering a fantasy.[58] One example is the gymnasium scene—Lester's first encounter with Angela. While the cheerleaders perform their half-time routine to "On Broadway", Lester becomes increasingly fixated on Angela. Time slows to represent his "voyeuristic hypnosis" and Lester begins to fantasize that Angela's performance is for him alone.[59] "On Broadway"—which provides a conventional underscore to the onscreen action—is replaced by discordant, percussive music that lacks melody or progression. This nondiegetic score is important to creating the narrative stasis in the sequence;[60] it conveys a moment for Lester that is stretched to an indeterminate length. The effect is one that Associate Professor Stan Link likens to "vertical time", described by the composer and music theorist Jonathan Kramer as music that imparts "a single present stretched out into an enormous duration, a potentially infinite 'now' that nonetheless feels like an instant".[nb 4] The music is used like a visual cue, so that Lester and the score are staring at Angela. The sequence ends with the sudden reintroduction of "On Broadway" and teleological time.[55]
According to Drew Miller of Stylus, the soundtrack "[gives] unconscious voice" to the characters' psyches and complements the subtext. The most obvious use of pop music "accompanies and gives context to" Lester's attempts to recapture his youth; reminiscent of how the counterculture of the 1960s combated American repression through music and drugs, Lester begins to smoke cannabis and listen to rock music.[nb 5] Mendes' song choices "progress through the history of American popular music". Miller argues that although some may be over familiar, there is a parodic element at work, "making good on [the film's] encouragement that viewers look closer". Toward the end of the film, Thomas Newman's score features more prominently, creating "a disturbing tempo" that matches the tension of the visuals. The exception is "Don't Let It Bring You Down", which plays during Angela's seduction of Lester. At first appropriate, its tone clashes as the seduction stops. The lyrics, which speak of "castles burning", can be seen as a metaphor for Lester's view of Angela—"the rosy, fantasy-driven exterior of the 'American Beauty'"—as it burns away to reveal "the timid, small-breasted girl who, like his wife, has willfully developed a false public self".[61]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
In 1997, Alan Ball resolved to move into the film industry after several frustrating years writing for the television sitcoms Grace Under Fire and Cybill. He joined the United Talent Agency (UTA), where his representative, Andrew Cannava, suggested he write a spec script to "reintroduce [himself] to the town as a screenwriter". Ball pitched three ideas to Cannava: two conventional romantic comedies and American Beauty,[nb 6][63] which he had originally conceived as a play in the early 1990s.[64] Despite the story's lack of an easily marketable concept, Cannava selected American Beauty because he felt it was the one Ball had the most passion for.[65] While developing the script, Ball created another television sitcom, Oh, Grow Up. He channeled his anger and frustration at having to accede to network demands on that show—and during his tenures on Grace Under Fire and Cybill—into writing American Beauty.[63]
Ball did not expect to sell the script, believing it would act as more of a calling card, but American Beauty drew interest from several production bodies.[66] Cannava passed the script to several producers, including Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who took it to DreamWorks.[67] With the help of executives Glenn Williamson and Bob Cooper, and Steven Spielberg in his capacity as studio partner, Ball was convinced to develop the project at DreamWorks;[68] he received assurances from the studio—known at the time for its more conventional fare—that it would not "iron the [edges] out".[nb 7][66] In an unusual move, DreamWorks decided not to option the script;[69] instead, in April 1998, the studio bought it outright[70] for $250,000,[71] outbidding Fox Searchlight Pictures, October Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lakeshore Entertainment.[72] DreamWorks planned to make the film for $6–8 million.[73]
Jinks and Cohen involved Ball throughout the film's development, including casting and director selection. The producers met with about twenty interested directors,[74] several of whom were considered "A-list" at the time. Ball was not keen on the more well-known directors because he believed their involvement would increase the budget and lead DreamWorks to become "nervous about the content".[75] Nevertheless, the studio offered the film to Mike Nichols and Robert Zemeckis; neither accepted.[73] In the same year, Mendes (then a theater director) revived the musical Cabaret in New York with fellow director Rob Marshall. Beth Swofford of the Creative Artists Agency arranged meetings for Mendes with studio figures in Los Angeles to see if film direction was a possibility.[nb 8] Mendes came across American Beauty in a pile of eight scripts at Swofford's house,[77] and knew immediately that it was the one he wanted to make; early in his career, he had been inspired by how the film Paris, Texas (1984) presented contemporary America as a mythic landscape and he saw the same theme in American Beauty, as well as parallels with his own childhood.[78] Mendes later met with Spielberg; impressed by Mendes' productions of Oliver! and Cabaret,[62] Spielberg encouraged him to consider American Beauty.[73]
Mendes found that he still had to convince DreamWorks' production executives to let him direct.[73] He had already discussed the film with Jinks and Cohen, and felt they supported him.[79] Ball was also keen; having seen Cabaret, he was impressed with Mendes' "keen visual sense" and thought he did not make obvious choices. Ball felt that Mendes liked to look under the story's surface, a talent he felt would be a good fit with the themes of American Beauty.[75] Mendes' background also reassured him, because of the prominent role the playwright usually has in a theater production.[74] Over two meetings—the first with Cooper, Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald,[79] the second with Cooper alone[80]—Mendes pitched himself to the studio.[79] The studio soon approached Mendes with a deal to direct for the minimum salary allowed under Directors Guild of America rules—$150,000. Mendes accepted, and later recalled that after taxes and his agent's commission, he only earned $38,000.[80] In June 1998, DreamWorks confirmed that it had contracted Mendes to direct the film.[81]
Writing[edit]



"I think I was writing about ... how it's becoming harder and harder to live an authentic life when we live in a world that seems to focus on appearance ... For all the differences between now and the [1950s], in a lot of ways this is just as oppressively conformist a time ... You see so many people who strive to live the unauthentic life and then they get there and they wonder why they're not happy ... I didn't realize it when I sat down to write [American Beauty], but these ideas are important to me."
—Alan Ball, 2000[82]
Ball was partly inspired by two encounters he had in the early 1990s. In about 1991–92, Ball saw a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center. He watched the bag for ten minutes, saying later that it provoked an "unexpected emotional response".[83] In 1992, Ball became preoccupied with the media circus around the Amy Fisher trial.[65] Discovering a comic book telling of the scandal, he was struck by how quickly it had become commercialized.[64] He said he "felt like there was a real story underneath [that was] more fascinating and way more tragic" than the story presented to the public,[65] and attempted to turn the idea into a play. Ball produced around 40 pages,[64] but stopped when he realized it would work better as a film.[65] He felt that because of the visual themes, and because each character's story was "intensely personal", it could not be done on a stage. All the main characters appeared in this version, but Carolyn did not feature strongly; Jim and Jim instead had much larger roles.[84]
Ball based Lester's story on aspects of his own life.[85] Lester's re-examination of his life parallels feelings Ball had in his mid-30s;[86] like Lester, Ball put aside his passions to work in jobs he hated for people he did not respect.[85] Scenes in Ricky's household reflect Ball's own childhood experiences.[66] Ball suspected his father was homosexual and used the idea to create Col. Fitts, a man who "gave up his chance to be himself".[87] Ball said the script's mix of comedy and drama was not intentional, but that it came unconsciously from his own outlook on life. He said the juxtaposition produced a starker contrast, giving each trait more impact than if they appeared alone.[88]
In the script that was sent to prospective actors and directors, Lester and Angela had sex;[89] by the time of shooting, Ball had rewritten the scene to the final version.[90] Ball initially rebuffed counsel from others that he change the script, feeling they were being puritanical; the final impetus to alter the scene came from DreamWorks' then-president Walter Parkes. He convinced Ball by indicating that in Greek mythology, the hero "has a moment of epiphany before ... tragedy occurs".[91] Ball later said his anger when writing the first draft had blinded him to the idea that Lester needed to refuse sex with Angela to complete his emotional journey—to achieve redemption.[90] Jinks and Cohen asked Ball not to alter the scene straight away, as they felt it would be inappropriate to make changes to the script before a director had been hired.[92] Early drafts also included a flashback to Col. Fitts service in the Marines, a sequence that unequivocally established his homosexual leanings. In love with another Marine, Col. Fitts sees the man die and comes to believe that he is being punished for the "sin" of being gay. Ball removed the sequence because it did not fit the structure of the rest of the film—Col. Fitts was the only character to have a flashback[93]—and because it removed the element of surprise from Col. Fitts' later pass at Lester.[92] Ball said he had to write it for his own benefit to know what happened to Col. Fitts, even though all that remained in later drafts was subtext.[93]
Ball remained involved throughout production;[74] he had signed a television show development deal, so had to get permission from his producers to take a year off to be close to American Beauty.[89] Ball was on-set for rewrites and to help interpret his script for all but two days of filming.[94] His original bookend scenes—in which Ricky and Jane are prosecuted for Lester's murder after being framed by Col. Fitts[95]—were excised in post-production;[65] the writer later felt the scenes were unnecessary, saying they were a reflection of his "anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see "Editing").[88] Ball and Mendes revised the script twice before it was sent to the actors, and twice more before the first read-through.[75]
The shooting script features a scene in Angela's car in which Ricky and Jane talk about death and beauty; the scene differed from earlier versions, which set it as a "big scene on a freeway"[96] in which the three witness a car crash and see a dead body.[97] The change was a practical decision, as the production was behind schedule and they needed to cut costs.[96] The schedule called for two days to be spent filming the crash, but only half a day was available.[97] Ball agreed, but only if the scene could retain a line of Ricky's where he reflects on having once seen a dead homeless woman: "When you see something like that, it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second. And if you're careful, you can look right back." Jane asks: "And what do you see?" Ricky: "Beauty." Ball said, "They wanted to cut that scene. They said it's not important. I said, 'You're out of your fucking mind. It's one of the most important scenes in the movie!' ... If any one line is the heart and soul of this movie, that is the line."[96] Another scene was rewritten to accommodate the loss of the freeway sequence; set in a schoolyard, it presents a "turning point" for Jane in that she chooses to walk home with Ricky instead of going with Angela.[97] By the end of filming, the script had been through ten drafts.[75]
Casting[edit]

Seven head-and-shoulder shots, arranged in two rows with four on the top, three on the bottom. Top row, left to right: a middle-aged, lightly balding, smiling man in a suit; a middle-aged woman with short, spiky, highlighted hair and a tailored jacket smiles with her eyes closed; a smiling young woman with tied-back hair and a v-necked top; a young woman with shoulder-length fringed-bob hair wears a sleeveless sundress. Bottom row, left to right: a middle-aged man with thick hair; a young man, posed in front of a taxi, wearing a bodywarmer; a middle-aged woman wearing a sleeveless halter neck dress gives a large smile.

 Principal cast. First row, left to right: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari
Second row: Chris Cooper, Wes Bentley, Allison Janney
Mendes had Spacey and Bening in mind for the leads from the beginning, but DreamWorks executives were unenthusiastic. The studio suggested several alternatives, including Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner or John Travolta to play Lester, and Helen Hunt or Holly Hunter to play Carolyn. Mendes did not want a big star "weighing the film down"; he felt Spacey was the right choice based on his performances in the 1995 films The Usual Suspects and Seven, and 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross.[98] Spacey was surprised; he said, "I usually play characters who are very quick, very manipulative and smart ... I usually wade in dark, sort of treacherous waters. This is a man living one step at a time, playing by his instincts. This is actually much closer to me, to what I am, than those other parts."[71] Mendes offered Bening the role of Carolyn without the studio's consent; although executives were upset at Mendes,[98] by September 1998, DreamWorks had entered negotiations with Spacey and Bening.[99][100]
Spacey loosely based Lester's early "schlubby" deportment on Walter Matthau.[101] During the film, Lester's physique improves from flabby to toned;[102] Spacey worked out during filming to improve his body,[103] but because Mendes shot the scenes out of chronological order, Spacey varied postures to portray the stages.[102] Before filming, Mendes and Spacey analyzed Jack Lemmon's performance in The Apartment (1960), because Mendes wanted Spacey to emulate "the way [Lemmon] moved, the way he looked, the way he was in that office and the way he was an ordinary man and yet a special man".[71] Spacey's voiceover is a throwback to Sunset Boulevard (1950), which is also narrated in retrospect by a dead character. Mendes felt it evoked Lester's—and the film's—loneliness.[7] Bening recalled women from her youth to inform her performance: "I used to babysit constantly. You'd go to church and see how people present themselves on the outside, and then be inside their house and see the difference." Bening and a hair stylist collaborated to create a "PTA president coif" hairstyle, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan researched mail order catalogs to better establish Carolyn's environment of a "spotless suburban manor".[104] To help Bening get into Carolyn's mindset, Mendes gave her music that he believed Carolyn would like.[105] He lent Bening the Bobby Darin version of the song "Don't Rain on My Parade", which she enjoyed and persuaded the director to include for a scene in which Carolyn sings in her car.[104]
For the roles of Jane, Ricky and Angela, DreamWorks gave Mendes carte blanche.[106] By November 1998, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari had been cast in the parts[107]—in Birch's case, despite the fact she was underage for her nude scene.[108] Bentley overcame competition from top actors under the age of 25 to be cast.[107] The 2009 documentary My Big Break followed Bentley, and several other young actors, before and after he landed the part.[109] To prepare, Mendes provided Bentley with a video camera, telling the actor to film what Ricky would.[105] Peter Gallagher and Alison Janney were cast (as Buddy Kane and Barbara Fitts) after filming began in December 1998.[110][111] Mendes gave Janney a book of paintings by Edvard Munch. He told her, "Your character is in there somewhere."[105] Mendes cut much of Barbara's dialogue,[112] including conversations between her and Col. Fitts, as he felt that what needed to be said about the pair—their humanity and vulnerability—was conveyed successfully through their shared moments of silence.[113] Chris Cooper plays Col. Fitts, Scott Bakula plays Jim Olmeyer, and Sam Robards plays Jim Berkley.[114] Jim and Jim were deliberately depicted as the most normal, happy—and boring—couple in the film.[47] Ball's inspiration for the characters came from a thought he had after seeing a "bland, boring, heterosexual couple" who wore matching clothes: "I can't wait for the time when a gay couple can be just as boring." Ball also included aspects of a gay couple he knew who had the same forename.[87]
Mendes insisted on two weeks of cast rehearsals, although the sessions were not as formal as he was used to in the theater, and the actors could not be present at every one.[105] Several improvisations and suggestions by the actors were incorporated into the script.[75] An early scene showing the Burnhams leaving home for work was inserted late on to show the low point that Carolyn and Lester's relationship had reached.[7] Spacey and Bening worked to create a sense of the love that Lester and Carolyn once had for one another; for example, the scene in which Lester almost seduces Carolyn after the pair argue over Lester's buying a car was originally "strictly contentious".[115]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography lasted about 50 days[116] from December 14, 1998,[117] to February 1999.[118] American Beauty was filmed on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and at Hancock Park and Brentwood in Los Angeles.[37] The aerial shots at the beginning and end of the film were captured in Sacramento, California,[119] and many of the school scenes were shot at South High School in Torrance, California; several extras in the gym crowd were South High students.[120] The film is set in an upper middle class neighborhood in an unidentified American town. Production designer Naomi Shohan likened the locale to Evanston, Illinois, but said, "it's not about a place, it's about an archetype ... The milieu was pretty much Anywhere, USA—upwardly mobile suburbia." The intent was for the setting to reflect the characters, who are also archetypes. Shohan said, "All of them are very strained, and their lives are constructs." The Burnhams' household was designed as the reverse of the Fitts'—the former a pristine ideal, but graceless and lacking in "inner balance", leading to Carolyn's desire to at least give it the appearance of a "perfect all-American household"; the Fitts' home is depicted in "exaggerated darkness [and] symmetry".[37]

High angled aerial shot of a developed city; a suburban grid dominates the lower half of the image. A river bisects the city from the left before forking; the first fork continues up and to the right edge of the image; the second curves up and around to finish on the left, enclosing industrial units and other domestic properties.

 The aerial shots of the Burnhams' neighborhood at the beginning and end of the film were captured above Sacramento, California.[119]
The production selected two adjacent properties on the Warner backlot's "Blondie Street" for the Burnhams' and Fitts' homes.[nb 9][37] The crew rebuilt the houses to incorporate false rooms that established lines of sight—between Ricky and Jane's bedroom windows, and between Ricky's bedroom and Lester's garage.[121] The garage windows were designed specifically to obtain the crucial shot toward the end of the film in which Col. Fitts—watching from Ricky's bedroom—mistakenly assumes that Lester is paying Ricky for sex.[103] Mendes made sure to establish the line of sight early on in the film to make the audience feel a sense of familiarity with the shot.[122] The house interiors were filmed on the backlot, on location, and on soundstages when overhead shots were needed.[37] The inside of the Burnhams' home was shot at a house close to Interstate 405 and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles; the inside of the Fitts' home was shot in the city's Hancock Park neighborhood.[121] Ricky's bedroom was designed to be cell-like to suggest his "monkish" personality, while at the same time blending with the high-tech equipment to reflect his voyeuristic side. The production deliberately minimized the use of red, as it was an important thematic signature elsewhere. The Burnhams' home uses cool blues, while the Fitts' is kept in a "depressed military palette".[37]
Mendes' dominating visual style was deliberate and composed, with a minimalist design that provided "a sparse, almost surreal feeling—a bright, crisp, hard edged, near Magritte-like take on American suburbia"; Mendes constantly directed his set dressers to empty the frame. He made Lester's fantasy scenes "more fluid and graceful",[17] and Mendes made minimal use of steadicams, feeling that stable shots generated more tension. For example, when Mendes used a slow push in to the Burnhams' dinner table, he held the shot because his training as a theater director taught him the importance of putting distance between the characters. He wanted to keep the tension in the scene, so he only cut away when Jane left the table.[nb 10][101] Mendes did use a hand-held camera for the scene in which Col. Fitts beats Ricky. Mendes said the camera provided the scene with a "kinetic ... off balance energy". He also went hand-held for the excerpts of Ricky's camcorder footage.[39] It took Mendes a long time to get the quality of Ricky's footage to the level he wanted.[101] For the plastic bag footage, Mendes used wind machines to move the bag in the air. The scene took four takes; two by the second unit did not satisfy Mendes, so he shot the scene himself. He felt his first take lacked grace, but for the last attempt he changed the location to the front of a brick wall and added leaves on the ground. Mendes was satisfied by the way the wall gave definition to the outline of the bag.[124]
Mendes avoided using close-ups, as he believed the technique was overused; he also cited Spielberg's advice that he should imagine an audience silhouetted at the bottom of the camera monitor, to keep in mind that he was shooting for display on a 40-foot (10 m) screen.[15] Spielberg—who visited the set a few times—also advised Mendes not to worry about costs if he had a "great idea" toward the end of a long working day. Mendes said, "That happened three or four times, and they are all in the movie."[125] Despite Spielberg's support, DreamWorks and Mendes fought constantly over the schedule and budget—although the studio interfered little with the film's content.[17] Spacey, Bening and Hall worked for significantly less than their usual rates. American Beauty cost DreamWorks $15 million to produce, slightly above their projected sum.[126] Mendes was so dissatisfied with his first three days' filming that he obtained permission from DreamWorks to reshoot the scenes. He said, "I started with a wrong scene, actually, a comedy scene.[nb 11] And the actors played it way too big ... It was badly shot, my fault, badly composed, my fault, bad costumes, my fault ... And everybody was doing what I was asking. It was all my fault." Aware that he was a novice, Mendes drew on the experience of Hall: "I made a very conscious decision early on, if I didn't understand something technically, to say, without embarrassment, 'I don't understand what you're talking about, please explain it.'"[71]
Mendes encouraged some improvisation; for example, when Lester masturbates in bed beside Carolyn, the director asked Spacey to improvise several euphemisms for the act in each take. Mendes said, "I wanted that not just because it was funny ... but because I didn't want it to seem rehearsed. I wanted it to seem like he was blurting it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is so in control—I wanted him to break through." Spacey obliged, eventually coming up with 35 phrases, but Bening could not always keep a straight face, which meant the scene had to be shot ten times.[125] The production used small amounts of computer-generated imagery. Most of the rose petals in Lester's fantasies were added in post-production,[57] although some were real and had the wires holding them digitally removed.[127] When Lester fantasizes about Angela in a rose petal bath, the steam was real, save for in the overhead shot. To position the camera, a hole had to be cut in the ceiling, through which the steam escaped; it was instead added digitally.[14]
Editing[edit]
American Beauty was edited by Christopher Greenbury and Tariq Anwar; Greenbury began in the position, but had to leave halfway through post-production because of a scheduling conflict with Me, Myself and Irene (2000). Mendes and an assistant edited the film for ten days between the appointments.[128] Mendes realized during editing that the film was different to the one he had envisioned. He believed he had been making a "much more whimsical ... kaleidoscopic" film than what came together in the edit suite. Instead, Mendes was drawn to the emotion and darkness; he began to use the score and shots he had intended to discard to craft the film along these lines.[129] In total, he cut about 30 minutes from his original edit.[116] The opening included a dream in which Lester imagines himself flying above the town. Mendes spent two days filming Spacey against bluescreen, but removed the sequence as he believed it to be too whimsical—"like a Coen brothers movie"—and therefore inappropriate for the tone he was trying to set.[101] The opening in the final cut reused a scene from the middle of the film where Jane tells Ricky to kill her father.[7] This scene was to be the revelation to the audience that the pair were not responsible for Lester's death, as the way it was scored and acted made it clear that Jane's request was not serious. However, in the portion he used in the opening—and when the full scene plays out later—Mendes used the score and a reaction shot of Ricky to leave a lingering ambiguity as to his guilt.[130] The subsequent shot—an aerial view of the neighborhood—was originally intended as the plate shot for the bluescreen effects in the dream sequence.[101]
Mendes spent more time re-cutting the first ten minutes than the rest of the film taken together. He trialled several versions of the opening;[7] the first edit included bookend scenes in which Jane and Ricky are convicted of Lester's murder,[131] but Mendes excised these in the last week of editing[7] because he felt they made the film lose its mystery,[132] and because they did not fit with the theme of redemption that had emerged during production. Mendes believed the trial drew focus away from the characters and turned the film "into an episode of NYPD Blue". Instead, he wanted the ending to be "a poetic mixture of dream and memory and narrative resolution".[17] When Ball first saw a completed edit, it was a version with truncated versions of these scenes. He felt that they were so short that they "didn't really register". He and Mendes argued,[94] but Ball was more accepting after Mendes cut the sequences completely; Ball felt that without the scenes the film was more optimistic and had evolved into something that "for all its darkness had a really romantic heart".[95]
Cinematography[edit]
Conrad Hall was not the first choice for director of photography; Mendes believed he was "too old and too experienced" to want the job, and he had been told that Hall was difficult to work with. Instead, Mendes asked Fred Elmes, who turned the job down because he did not like the script.[133] Hall was recommended to Mendes by Tom Cruise, because of Hall's work on Without Limits (1998), which Cruise had executive produced. Mendes was directing Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman in the play The Blue Room during pre-production on American Beauty,[121] and had already storyboarded the whole film.[62] Hall was involved for one month during pre-production;[121] his ideas for lighting the film began with his first reading of the script, and further passes allowed him to refine his approach before meeting Mendes.[134] Hall was initially concerned that audiences would not like the characters; he only felt able to identify with them during cast rehearsals, which gave him fresh ideas on his approach to the visuals.[121]
Hall's approach was to create peaceful compositions that evoked classicism, to contrast with the turbulent on-screen events and allow audiences to take in the action. Hall and Mendes would first discuss the intended mood of a scene, but he was allowed to light the shot in any way he felt necessary.[134] In most cases, Hall first lit the scene's subject by "painting in" the blacks and whites, before adding fill light, which he reflected from beadboard or white card on the ceiling. This approach gave Hall more control over the shadows while keeping the fill light unobtrusive and the dark areas free of spill.[135] Hall shot American Beauty in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio in the Super 35 format, using Kodak Vision 500T 5279 35 mm film stock.[136] He used Super 35 partly because its larger scope allowed him to capture elements such as the corners of the petal-filled pool in its overhead shot, creating a frame around Angela within.[127] He shot the whole film at the same T-stop (T1.9);[136] given his preference for shooting that wide, Hall favored high-speed stocks to allow for more subtle lighting effects.[135] He used Panavision Platinum cameras with the company's Primo series of prime and zoom lenses. Hall employed Kodak Vision 200T 5274 and EXR 5248 stock for scenes with daylight effects. He had difficulty adjusting to Kodak's newly introduced Vision release print stock, which, combined with his contrast-heavy lighting style, created a look with too much contrast. Hall contacted Kodak, who sent him a batch of 5279 that was 5% lower in contrast. Hall used a 1/8 inch Tiffen Black ProMist filter for almost every scene, which he said in retrospect may not have been the best choice, as the optical steps required to blow Super 35 up for its anamorphic release print led to a slight amount of degradation; therefore, the diffusion from the filter was not required. When he saw the film in a theater, Hall felt that the image was slightly unclear and that had he not used the filter, the diffusion from the Super 35–anamorphic conversion would have generated an image closer to what he originally intended.[136]
A shot where Lester and Ricky share a cannabis joint behind a building came from a misunderstanding between Hall and Mendes. Mendes asked Hall to prepare the shot in his absence; Hall assumed the characters would look for privacy, so he placed them in a narrow passage between a truck and the building, intending to light from the top of the truck. When Mendes returned, he explained that the characters did not care if they were seen. He removed the truck and Hall had to rethink the lighting; he lit it from the left, with a large light crossing the actors, and with a soft light behind the camera. Hall felt the consequent wide shot "worked perfectly for the tone of the scene".[136] Hall made sure to keep rain, or the suggestion of it, in every shot near the end of the film. In one shot during Lester's encounter with Angela at the Burnhams' home, Hall created rain effects on the foreground cross lights; in another, he partly lit the pair through French windows to which he had added material to make the rain run slower, intensifying the light (although the strength of the outside light was unrealistic for a night scene, Hall felt it justified because of the strong contrasts it produced). For the close-ups when Lester and Angela move to the couch, Hall tried to keep rain in the frame, lighting through the window onto the ceiling behind Lester.[135] He also used rain boxes to produce rain patterns where he wanted without lighting the entire room.[137]
Music[edit]
Further information: American Beauty (soundtrack) and American Beauty: Original Motion Picture Score
Thomas Newman's score was recorded in Santa Monica, California.[71] He mainly used percussion instruments to create the mood and rhythm, the inspiration for which was provided by Mendes.[138] Newman "favored pulse, rhythm and color over melody", making for a more minimalist score than he had previously created. He built each cue around "small, endlessly repeating phrases"—often, the only variety through a "thinning of the texture for eight bars".[139] The percussion instruments included tablas, bongos, cymbals, piano, xylophones and marimbas; also featured were guitars, flute, and world music instruments.[138] Newman also used electronic music and on "quirkier" tracks employed more unorthodox methods, such as tapping metal mixing bowls with a finger and using a detuned mandolin.[139] Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script: "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve [that]."[138]
The soundtrack features songs by Newman, Bobby Darin, The Who, Free, Eels, The Guess Who, Bill Withers, Betty Carter, Peggy Lee, The Folk Implosion, Gomez, and Bob Dylan, as well as two cover versions—The Beatles' "Because" performed by Elliott Smith, and Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down" performed by Annie Lennox.[114] Produced by the film's music supervisor Chris Douridas,[140] an abridged soundtrack album was released on October 5, 1999 and went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. An album featuring 19 tracks from Newman's score was released on January 11, 2000, and won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album.[141] Filmmaker considered the score to be one of Newman's best, saying it "[enabled] the film's transcendentalist aspirations". In 2006, the magazine chose the score as one of twenty essential soundtracks it believed spoke to the "complex and innovative relationships between music and screen storytelling".[142]
Release[edit]
Publicity[edit]
DreamWorks contracted Amazon.com to create the official website, marking the first time that Amazon had created a special section devoted to a feature film. The website included an overview, a photo gallery, cast and crew filmographies, and exclusive interviews with Spacey and Bening.[143] The film's tagline—"look closer"—originally came from a cutting pasted on Lester's workplace cubicle by the set dresser.[101] DreamWorks ran parallel marketing campaigns and trailers—one aimed at adults, the other at teenagers. Both trailers ended with the poster image of a girl holding a rose.[nb 12][145] Reviewing the posters of several 1999 films, David Hochman of Entertainment Weekly rated American Beauty's highly, saying it evoked the tagline; he said, "You return to the poster again and again, thinking, this time you're gonna find something."[144] DreamWorks did not want to test screen the film; according to Mendes, the studio was pleased with it, but he insisted on one where he could question the audience afterward. The studio reluctantly agreed and showed the film to a young audience in San Jose, California. Mendes claimed the screening went very well.[nb 13][126]
Theatrical run[edit]
American Beauty had its world premiere on September 8, 1999, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.[146] Three days later, the film appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival.[147] With the filmmakers and cast in attendance, it screened at several American universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, New York University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Austin, and Northwestern University.[148]

The number starts at 6 on September 15, 1999, and steeply rises to 1528 on October 29, before declining to a low of 10 on February 4, 2000. The number then rises to 1990 on March 31 and decreases to 138 on June 4.

 Graph showing the number of theaters in which American Beauty played in North America in 1999–2000. After the film's Golden Globe success in January 2000, DreamWorks re-expanded its market presence to 1,990 theaters.[149][150]
On September 15, 1999, American Beauty opened to the public in limited release at three theaters in Los Angeles and three in New York.[nb 14][151] More theaters were added during the limited run,[150] and on October 1, the film officially entered wide release[nb 15] by screening in 706 theaters across North America.[152] The film grossed $8,188,587 over the weekend, ranking third at the box office.[153] Audiences polled by the market research firm CinemaScore gave American Beauty a "B+" grade on average.[nb 16][155] The theater count hit a high of 1,528 at the end of the month, before a gradual decline.[150] Following American Beauty's wins at the 57th Golden Globe Awards, DreamWorks re-expanded the theater presence from a low of 7 in mid-February,[149] to a high of 1,990 in March.[150] The film ended its North American theatrical run on June 4, 2000, having grossed $130.1 million.[153]
American Beauty had its European premiere at the London Film Festival on November 18, 1999;[156] in January 2000, it began to screen in various territories outside North America.[157] It debuted in Israel to "potent" returns,[158] and limited releases in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Finland followed on January 21.[159] After January 28 opening weekends in Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain and Norway, American Beauty had earned $7 million in 12 countries for a total of $12.1 million outside North America.[160] On February 4, American Beauty debuted in France and Belgium. Expanding to 303 theaters in the United Kingdom, the film ranked first at the box office with $1.7 million.[161] On the weekend of February 18—following American Beauty's eight nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards—the film grossed $11.7 million from 21 territories, for a total of $65.4 million outside North America. The film had "dazzling" debuts in Hungary, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and New Zealand.[162]
As of February 18, the most successful territories were the UK ($15.2 million), Italy ($10.8 million), Germany ($10.5 million), Australia ($6 million) and France ($5.3 million).[162] The Academy Award nominations meant strong performances continued across the board;[163] the following weekend, American Beauty grossed $10.9 million in 27 countries, with strong debuts in Brazil, Mexico and South Korea.[164] Other high spots included robust returns in Argentina, Greece and Turkey.[163] On the weekend of March 3, 2000, American Beauty debuted strongly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and in Singapore, markets traditionally "not receptive to this kind of upscale fare". The impressive South Korean performance continued, with a return of $1.2 million after nine days.[165] In total, American Beauty grossed $130.1 million in North America and $226.2 million internationally, for $356.3 million worldwide.[153]
Home media[edit]
American Beauty was released on VHS on May 9, 2000[166] and on DVD with the DTS format on October 24, 2000.[167] Before the North American rental release on May 9,[168] Blockbuster Video wanted to purchase hundreds of thousands of extra copies for its "guaranteed title" range, whereby anyone who wanted to rent the film would be guaranteed a copy. Blockbuster and DreamWorks could not agree on a profit sharing deal, so Blockbuster ordered two thirds the number of copies it originally intended.[169] DreamWorks made around one million copies available for rental; Blockbuster's share would usually have been about 400,000 of these. Some Blockbuster stores only displayed 60 copies,[170] and others did not display the film at all, forcing customers to ask for it.[169][170] The strategy required staff to read a statement to customers explaining the situation; Blockbuster claimed it was only "[monitoring] customer demand" due to the reduced availability.[169] Blockbuster's strategy leaked before May 9, leading to a 30% order increase from other retailers.[168][169] In its first week of rental release, American Beauty made $6.8 million. This return was lower than would have been expected had DreamWorks and Blockbuster reached an agreement. The same year's The Sixth Sense made $22 million, while Fight Club made $8.1 million, even though the latter's North American theatrical performance was just 29% that of American Beauty. Blockbuster's strategy also affected rental fees; American Beauty averaged $3.12, compared with $3.40 for films that Blockbuster fully promoted. Only 53% of the film's rentals were from large outlets in the first week, compared with the usual 65%.[169]
The DVD release included a behind-the-scenes featurette, film audio commentary from Mendes and Ball and a storyboard presentation with discussion from Mendes and Hall.[167] In the film commentary, Mendes refers to deleted scenes he intended to include in the release.[171] However, these scenes are not on the DVD as he changed his mind after recording the commentary;[172] Mendes felt that to show scenes he previously chose not to use would detract from the film's integrity.[173]
On September 21, 2010, Paramount Home Entertainment released American Beauty on Blu-ray, as part of Paramount's Sapphire Series. All the extras from the DVD release were present, with the theatrical trailers upgraded to HD.[174]
Critical reception[edit]
Critically acclaimed, American Beauty was widely considered the best film of 1999 by the American press; it received overwhelming praise, chiefly for Spacey, Mendes and Ball.[175] Variety reported, "No other 1999 movie has benefited from such universal raves."[176] It was the best-received title at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF),[147] where it won the People's Choice Award after a ballot of the festival's audiences.[177] TIFF's director, Piers Handling, said, "American Beauty was the buzz of the festival, the film most talked about."[178]
Writing in Variety, Todd McCarthy said the cast ensemble "could not be better"; he praised Spacey's "handling of innuendo, subtle sarcasm and blunt talk" and the way he imbued Lester with "genuine feeling".[179] Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Spacey was at his "wittiest and most agile" to date,[180] and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times singled Spacey out for successfully portraying a man who "does reckless and foolish things [but who] doesn't deceive himself".[181] Kevin Jackson of Sight & Sound said Spacey impressed in ways distinct from his previous performances, the most satisfying aspect being his portrayal of "both sap and hero".[114] Writing in Film Quarterly, Gary Hentzi praised the actors,[182] but said that characters such as Carolyn and Col. Fitts were stereotypes.[183] Hentzi accused Mendes and Ball of identifying too readily with Jane and Ricky, saying the latter was their "fantasy figure"—a teenaged boy who's an absurdly wealthy artist able to "finance [his] own projects".[184] Hentzi said Angela was the most believable teenager, in particular with her "painfully familiar" attempts to "live up to an unworthy image of herself".[175] Maslin agreed that some characters were unoriginal, but said their detailed characterizations made them memorable.[180] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said the actors coped "faultlessly" with what were difficult roles; he called Spacey's performance "the energy that drives the film", saying the actor commanded audience involvement despite Lester's not always being sympathetic. "Against considerable odds, we do like [these characters]," Turan concluded.[185]
Maslin felt that Mendes directed with "terrific visual flair", saying his minimalist style balanced "the mordant and bright" and that he evoked the "delicate, eroticized power-playing vignettes" of his theater work.[180] Jackson said Mendes' theatrical roots rarely showed, and that the "most remarkable" aspect was that Spacey's performance did not overshadow the film. He said that Mendes worked the script's intricacies smoothly, to the ensemble's strengths, and staged the tonal shifts skillfully.[114] McCarthy believed American Beauty a "stunning card of introduction" for film débutantes Mendes and Ball. He said Mendes' "sure hand" was "as precise and controlled" as his theater work. McCarthy cited Hall's involvement as fortunate for Mendes, as the cinematographer was "unsurpassed" at conveying the themes of a work.[179] Turan agreed that Mendes' choice of collaborators was "shrewd", naming Hall and Newman in particular. Turan suggested that American Beauty may have benefited from Mendes' inexperience, as his "anything's possible daring" made him attempt beats that more seasoned directors might have avoided. Turan felt that Mendes' accomplishment was to "capture and enhance [the] duality" of Ball's script—the simultaneously "caricatured ... and painfully real" characters.[185] Hentzi, while critical of many of Mendes and Ball's choices, admitted the film showed off their "considerable talents".[182]
Turan cited Ball's lack of constraint when writing the film as the reason for its uniqueness, in particular the script's subtle changes in tone.[185] McCarthy said the script was "as fresh and distinctive" as any of its American film contemporaries, and praised how it analyzed the characters while not compromising narrative pace. He called Ball's dialogue "tart" and said the characters—Carolyn excepted—were "deeply drawn". One other flaw, McCarthy said, was the revelation of Col. Fitts' homosexuality, which he said evoked "hoary Freudianism".[179] Jackson said the film transcended its clichéd setup to become a "wonderfully resourceful and sombre comedy". He said that even when the film played for sitcom laughs, it did so with "unexpected nuance".[114] Hentzi criticized how the film made a mystery of Lester's murder, believing it manipulative and simply a way of generating suspense.[182] McCarthy cited the production and costume design as pluses, and said the soundtrack was good at creating "ironic counterpoint[s]" to the story.[179] Hentzi concluded that American Beauty was "vital but uneven"; he felt the film's examination of "the ways which teenagers and adults imagine each other's lives" was its best point, and that although Lester and Angela's dynamic was familiar, its romantic irony stood beside "the most enduring literary treatments" of the theme, such as Lolita. Nevertheless, Hentzi believed that the film's themes of materialism and conformity in American suburbia were "hackneyed".[175] McCarthy conceded that the setting was familiar, but said it merely provided the film with a "starting point" from which to tell its "subtle and acutely judged tale".[179] Maslin agreed; she said that while it "takes aim at targets that are none too fresh", and that the theme of nonconformity did not surprise, the film had its own "corrosive novelty".[180] Ebert awarded American Beauty four stars out of four,[181] and Turan said it was layered, subversive, complex and surprising, concluding it was "a hell of a picture".[185]
A few months after the film's release, reports of a backlash appeared in the American press,[186] and the years since have seen its critical regard wane.[187][188] In 2005, Premiere named American Beauty as one of 20 "most overrated movies of all time";[189] Mendes accepted the inevitability of the critical reappraisal, saying, "I thought some of it was entirely justified—it was a little overpraised at the time."[188]
Accolades[edit]
Main article: List of accolades received by American Beauty
American Beauty was not considered an immediate favorite to dominate the American awards season. Several other contenders opened at the end of 1999, and US critics spread their honors among them when compiling their end-of-year lists.[190] The Chicago Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Film Critics Association named the film the best of 1999, but although the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized American Beauty,[191] they gave their top awards to other films.[190] By the end of the year, reports of a critical backlash suggested American Beauty was the underdog in the race for Best Picture;[186] however, at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2000, American Beauty won Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.[191]
As the nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards approached, a frontrunner had not emerged.[190] DreamWorks had launched a major campaign for American Beauty five weeks before ballots were due to be sent to the 5,600 Academy Award voters. Its campaign combined traditional advertising and publicity with more focused strategies. Although direct mail campaigning was prohibited, DreamWorks reached voters by promoting the film in "casual, comfortable settings" in voters' communities. The studio's candidate for Best Picture the previous year, Saving Private Ryan, lost to Shakespeare in Love, so the studio took a new approach by hiring outsiders to provide input for the campaign. It hired three veteran consultants, who told the studio to "think small". Nancy Willen encouraged DreamWorks to produce a special about the making of American Beauty, to set up displays of the film in the communities' bookstores, and to arrange a question-and-answer session with Mendes for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Dale Olson advised the studio to advertise in free publications that circulated in Beverly Hills—home to many voters—in addition to major newspapers. Olson arranged to screen American Beauty to about 1,000 members of the Actors Fund of America, as many participating actors were also voters. Bruce Feldman took Ball to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Ball attended a private dinner in honor of Anthony Hopkins, meeting several voters who were in attendance.[192]
In February 2000, American Beauty was nominated for eight Academy Awards; its closest rivals, The Cider House Rules and The Insider, received seven nominations each. In March 2000, the major industry labor organizations[nb 17] all awarded their top honors to American Beauty; perceptions had shifted—the film was now favorite to dominate the Academy Awards.[190] American Beauty's closest rival for Best Picture was still The Cider House Rules, from Miramax. Both studios mounted aggressive campaigns; DreamWorks bought 38% more advertising space in Variety than Miramax.[193] On March 26, 2000, American Beauty won five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.[194][nb 18] At the 53rd British Academy Film Awards, American Beauty won six of the fourteen awards for which it was nominated: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress (Bening), Best Cinematography, Best Film Music and Best Editing.[191] In 2000, the Publicists Guild of America recognized DreamWorks for the best film publicity campaign.[196] In September 2008, Empire named American Beauty the 96th "Greatest Movie of All Time" after a poll of 10,000 readers, 150 filmmakers and 50 film critics, the 4th highest ranked movie from 1999 (behind Fight Club, The Matrix, and Magnolia).[nb 19][198] In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay #38 on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays.[199]
The film was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) in 2007.[200]
References[edit]
Annotations
1.Jump up ^ Some postmodernist readings would posit no need for an identified voice; see Death of the Author.
2.Jump up ^ Despite their desire to conform, Jim and Jim are openly, proudly gay, a contradiction that Sally R. Munt says may seem strange to heterosexual audiences.[21]
3.Jump up ^ According to Hausmann, "These films appear to suggest that [the film theorist] Kaja Silverman's wish 'that the typical male subject, like his female counterpart, might learn to live with lack'—namely, the 'lack of being' that remains 'the irreducible condition of subjectivity'— has not yet been fulfilled."[42] See Silverman, Kaja (1992). Male Subjectivity at the Margins (New York: Routledge): 65+20. ISBN 9780415904193.
4.Jump up ^ Kramer uses the analogy of looking at a sculpture: "We determine for ourselves the pacing of our experience: we are free to walk around the piece, view it from many angles, concentrate on some details, see other details in relationship to each other, step back and view the whole, see the relationship between the piece and the space in which we see it, leave the room when we wish close our eyes and remember, and return for further viewings."[55]
5.Jump up ^ Another example comes with the songs that Carolyn picks to accompany the Burnhams' dinners—upbeat "elevator music" which is later replaced with more discordant tunes that reflect the "escalating tension" at the table. When Jane plays "Cancer for the Cure", she switches off after a few moments because her parents return home. The moment reinforces her as someone whose voice is "cut short", as does her lack of association with as clearly defined genres as her parents.[61]
6.Jump up ^ At that point called American Rose.[62]
7.Jump up ^ Ball said he decided on DreamWorks after an accidental meeting with Spielberg in the Amblin Entertainment car park, where the writer became confident that Spielberg "got" the script and its intended tone.[68]
8.Jump up ^ Mendes had considered the idea before; he almost took on The Wings of the Dove (1997) and had previously failed to secure financing for an adaptation of the play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, which he directed in 1992. The play made it to the screen in 1998 as Little Voice, without Mendes' involvement.[76]
9.Jump up ^ One of which director of photography Conrad Hall had filmed for Divorce American Style (1967).[121]
10.Jump up ^ The shot references a similar one in Ordinary People (1980). Mendes included several such homages to other films; family photographs in the characters' homes were inserted to give them a sense of history, but also as a nod to the way Terrence Malick used still photographs in Badlands (1973).[101] A shot of Lester's jogging was a homage to Marathon Man (1976) and Mendes watched several films to help improve his ability to evoke a "heightened sense of style": The King of Comedy (1983), All That Jazz (1979) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).[123]
11.Jump up ^ The scene at the fast food outlet where Lester discovers Carolyn's affair.[103]
12.Jump up ^ The navel pictured is not Mena Suvari's; it belongs to the model Chloe Hunter.[144]
13.Jump up ^ Mendes said, "So at the end of the film I got up, and I was terribly British, I said, 'So, who kind of liked the movie?' And about a third of them put up their hands, and I thought, 'Oh shit.' So I said, 'OK, who kind of didn't like it?' Two people. And I said, 'Well, what else is there?' And a guy in the front said, 'Ask who really liked the movie.' So I did, and they all put up their hands. And I thought, 'Thank you, God.'"[126]
14.Jump up ^ "Theaters" refers to individual movie theaters, which may have multiple auditoriums. Later, "screens" refers to single auditoriums.
15.Jump up ^ Crossing the 600-theater threshold.
16.Jump up ^ According to the firm, men under 21 gave American Beauty an "A+" grade; women under 21 gave it an "A". Men in the 21–34 age group gave the film a "B+"; women 21–34 gave it an "A–". Men 35 and over awarded a "B+"; women 35 and over gave a "B".[154]
17.Jump up ^ The Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, the Producers Guild of America, the American Society of Cinematographers and the Directors Guild of America.[190]
18.Jump up ^ The Best Director award was presented to Mendes by Spielberg.[195]
19.Jump up ^ This poll followed one of Empire's readers alone in March 2006, which ranked the film number 51 out of 201.[197]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "American Beauty (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Booth 2002, p. 129
3.Jump up ^ Hall 2006, p. 23
4.^ Jump up to: a b c Booth 2002, p. 126
5.^ Jump up to: a b Booth 2002, p. 128
6.Jump up ^ Booth 2002, pp. 126–128
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 1
8.^ Jump up to: a b Anker 2004, pp. 348–349
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Hausmann 2004, p. 118
10.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Pennington 2007, p. 104
11.^ Jump up to: a b Munt 2006, pp. 264–265
12.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 8
13.^ Jump up to: a b Hausmann 2004, pp. 118–119
14.^ Jump up to: a b c Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 11
15.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 25
16.^ Jump up to: a b Pennington 2007, p. 105
17.^ Jump up to: a b c d Kemp 2000, p. 26
18.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 26
19.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 27
20.Jump up ^ Desowitz, Bill (December 12, 1999). "Finding Spiritual Rebirth In a Valley of Male Ennui". The New York Times: 215.
21.^ Jump up to: a b c d Munt 2006, p. 265
22.Jump up ^ Munt 2006, p. 274
23.Jump up ^ Hausmann 2004, p. 112
24.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, p. 345
25.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, p. 347
26.Jump up ^ Hall 2006, p. 24
27.^ Jump up to: a b Anker 2004, pp. 347–348
28.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, p. 348
29.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, pp. 349–350
30.^ Jump up to: a b c d Anker 2004, p. 350
31.Jump up ^ Hall 2006, p. 27
32.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, p. 356
33.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, p. 360
34.Jump up ^ Anker 2004, pp. 358–359
35.Jump up ^ Bellantoni 2005, p. 25
36.^ Jump up to: a b Bellantoni 2005, p. 27
37.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Shohan, Naomi (February 25, 2000). "'Beauty' design character driven". Variety.
38.^ Jump up to: a b Pennington 2007, pp. 105–106
39.^ Jump up to: a b Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 18
40.^ Jump up to: a b Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 23
41.^ Jump up to: a b Pennington 2007, p. 106
42.^ Jump up to: a b 2004, p. 117
43.Jump up ^ Hausmann 2004, p. 117
44.Jump up ^ Hausmann 2004, p. 113
45.Jump up ^ Munt 2006, p. 267
46.^ Jump up to: a b Munt 2006, p. 266
47.^ Jump up to: a b Ball, Alan (March 28, 2000). "Beauty and the Box Office". The Advocate: 11.
48.Jump up ^ Munt 2006, p. 264
49.Jump up ^ Hausmann 2004, p. 127
50.Jump up ^ Hausmann 2004, p. 148
51.^ Jump up to: a b Furby 2006, p. 22
52.Jump up ^ Furby 2006, p. 25
53.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 17
54.Jump up ^ Furby 2006, pp. 25–26
55.^ Jump up to: a b c Link 2004, p. 86
56.Jump up ^ Furby 2006, p. 23
57.^ Jump up to: a b Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 4
58.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 9
59.Jump up ^ Link 2004, p. 84
60.Jump up ^ Link 2004, pp. 84–85
61.^ Jump up to: a b Miller, Drew (July 20, 2004). "A Kiss After Supper: American Beauty". Stylus. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
62.^ Jump up to: a b c Fanshawe, Simon (January 22, 2000). "Sam smiles". The Guardian: 32.
63.^ Jump up to: a b Cohen, David S. (March 7, 2000). "Scripter Ball hits a home run". Variety.
64.^ Jump up to: a b c Kazan 2000, p. 25
65.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Chumo II 2000, p. 26
66.^ Jump up to: a b c Chumo II 2000, p. 27
67.Jump up ^ Kazan 2000, p. 28
68.^ Jump up to: a b Kazan 2000, pp. 28–29
69.Jump up ^ Kazan 2000, p. 30
70.Jump up ^ Staff (April 14, 1998). "DreamWorks grateful for 'American Beauty'". The Hollywood Reporter.
71.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Weinraub, Bernard (September 12, 1999). "The New Season / Film: Stage to Screen; A Wunderkind Discovers the Wonders of Film". The New York Times: 271.
72.Jump up ^ Cox, Dan (April 14, 1998). "D'Works courts 'Beauty' spec". Variety.
73.^ Jump up to: a b c d Lowenstein 2008, p. 251
74.^ Jump up to: a b c Kazan 2000, p. 31
75.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Chumo II 2000, p. 28
76.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, p. 248
77.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, p. 249
78.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, pp. 250–251
79.^ Jump up to: a b c Lowenstein 2008, p. 252
80.^ Jump up to: a b Lowenstein 2008, p. 253
81.Jump up ^ Hindes, Andrew (June 16, 1998). "Staging a transfer: Legit helmer Mendes makes pic bow with 'Beauty'". Variety.
82.Jump up ^ Chumo II 2000, p. 32
83.Jump up ^ Kazan 2000, p. 24
84.Jump up ^ Kazan 2000, p. 37
85.^ Jump up to: a b Chumo II 2000, pp. 26–27
86.Jump up ^ Chumo II 2000, pp. 32–33
87.^ Jump up to: a b Kilday, Gregg (January 18, 2000). "Worth a Closer Look". The Advocate: 91–92.
88.^ Jump up to: a b Chumo II 2000, p. 30
89.^ Jump up to: a b Kazan 2000, p. 32
90.^ Jump up to: a b Chumo II 2000, p. 33
91.Jump up ^ Kazan 2000, pp. 32–33
92.^ Jump up to: a b Kazan 2000, p. 33
93.^ Jump up to: a b Chumo II 2000, pp. 33–34
94.^ Jump up to: a b Kazan 2000, p. 35
95.^ Jump up to: a b Wolk, Josh (March 27, 2000). "Pitching Fitts". Entertainment Weekly.
96.^ Jump up to: a b c Chumo II 2000, p. 35
97.^ Jump up to: a b c Kazan 2000, p. 36
98.^ Jump up to: a b Lowenstein 2008, pp. 253–254
99.Jump up ^ Fleming, Michael (September 15, 1998). "Spacey nears 'Beauty' deal". Variety.
100.Jump up ^ Fleming, Michael (September 23, 1998). "Bening in 'Beauty': Actress close to joining Spacey in DW pic". Variety.
101.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 2
102.^ Jump up to: a b Gordinier, Jeff (March 1, 2000). "Kevin Spacey – American Beauty". Entertainment Weekly (529).
103.^ Jump up to: a b c Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 22
104.^ Jump up to: a b Gordinier, Jeff (March 1, 2000). "Annette Bening – American Beauty". Entertainment Weekly (529).
105.^ Jump up to: a b c d Lowenstein 2008, pp. 257–258
106.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, p. 257
107.^ Jump up to: a b Honeycutt. Kirk (November 6, 1998). "'Beloved' actor sees 'Beauty'". The Hollywood Reporter.
108.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (October 10, 1999). "The Answer Man". Chicago Sun-Times: 5.
109.Jump up ^ Verniere, James (September 18, 2009). "Hub Film Fest: It's Reel Time". Boston Herald: E20.
110.Jump up ^ Galloway, Stephen (December 23, 1998). "Gallagher role: thing of 'Beauty'". The Hollywood Reporter.
111.Jump up ^ Harris, Dana (December 28, 1998). "Alison Janney set for 'Nurse,' 'Beauty'". The Hollywood Reporter.
112.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 16
113.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 6
114.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Jackson, Kevin (February 2000). "American Beauty". Sight & Sound 10 (2): 40.
115.Jump up ^ Kazan 2000, p. 34
116.^ Jump up to: a b Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 19
117.Jump up ^ Staff (November 6, 1998). "Players". Variety.
118.Jump up ^ Fleming, Michael (February 24, 1999). "'L.A.' duo greases up for 'Suite' ride". Variety.
119.^ Jump up to: a b Costello, Becca (September 30, 2004). "It was filmed in Sacramento". Sacramento News & Review.
120.Jump up ^ Matsumoto, Jon (July 22, 2001). "You'll Need a Permission Slip for That". Los Angeles Times.
121.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Probst et al. 2000, p. 75
122.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 10
123.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 21
124.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, p. 268
125.^ Jump up to: a b Stein, Ruthe (September 12, 1999). "From 'Cabaret' to California". San Francisco Chronicle: 55.
126.^ Jump up to: a b c Kemp 2000, p. 27
127.^ Jump up to: a b Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 5
128.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, p. 270
129.Jump up ^ Kemp 2000, pp. 25–26
130.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 20
131.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 12
132.Jump up ^ Staff (July 7, 2000). "'Beauty' mark: DVD due with 3 hours of extras". The Hollywood Reporter.
133.Jump up ^ Lowenstein 2008, p. 259
134.^ Jump up to: a b Probst 2000, p. 80
135.^ Jump up to: a b c Probst 2000, p. 81
136.^ Jump up to: a b c d Probst et al. 2000, p. 76
137.Jump up ^ Probst 2000, p. 82
138.^ Jump up to: a b c Burlingame, Jon (January 21, 2000). "Spotlight: Thomas Newman". Variety.
139.^ Jump up to: a b Torniainen, James (February 2000). "American Beauty". Film Score Monthly 5 (2): 36.
140.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapter 24
141.Jump up ^ Staff (February 21, 2001). "The Grammy Awards; Complete List of Winners". Los Angeles Times: 12.
142.Jump up ^ Staff (Winter 2006). "Filmmaker Selects 20 Essential Movie Soundtracks". Filmmaker: 110–111.
143.Jump up ^ Graser, Marc; Madigan, Nick (August 31, 1999). "Amazon.com books 'Beauty' for D'Works". Variety.
144.^ Jump up to: a b Hochman, David (November 26, 1999). "Moving Pictures". Entertainment Weekly: 25–26.
145.Jump up ^ McKittrick, Casey (Spring 2001). "I Laughed and Cringed at the same Time". Velvet Light Trap (University of Texas Press) (47): 5+13.
146.Jump up ^ Higgins, Bill (September 13, 1999). "'Beauty's' belle of the ball". Variety.
147.^ Jump up to: a b Carver, Benedict; Jones, Oliver (September 13, 1999). "'Beauty' and the buzz: Mendes bow wows Toronto; SPE near 'East' deal". Variety.
148.Jump up ^ Archerd, Army (September 16, 1999). "Just for Variety". Variety.
149.^ Jump up to: a b Hayes, Dade (February 16, 2000). "Oscar glow is golden at B.O.". Variety.
150.^ Jump up to: a b c d "American Beauty: Weekend Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
151.Jump up ^ Hayes, Dade (September 17, 1999). "'Beauty' strong in limited bow". Variety.
152.Jump up ^ Klady, Leonard (October 4, 1999). "'Double' decks 'Kings' at B.O.". Variety.
153.^ Jump up to: a b c "American Beauty (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
154.Jump up ^ "CinemaScore: American Beauty". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on April 8, 2000. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
155.Jump up ^ Staff (January 27, 2000). "CinemaScore Ratings Compare with Golden Globes:Critics Both Confirm, Deny Latest Audience Preferences". AllBusiness (Business Wire). Retrieved May 3, 2009.
156.Jump up ^ Dawtrey, Adam (September 16, 1999). "An 'American' kickoff for London Film Festival". Variety.
157.Jump up ^ Fleming, Michael (November 29, 1999). "H'w'd taps on Mendes' door". Variety.
158.Jump up ^ Groves, Don (January 18, 2000). "Preems push o'seas B.O.: 'Ashes,' 'Kings,' 'Beauty' bows boost weekend". Variety.
159.Jump up ^ Groves, Don (January 25, 2000). "Winter chill o'seas: 'Sleepy Hollow' warms Spain in frigid frame". Variety.
160.Jump up ^ Groves, Don (February 1, 2000). "B.O. scores o'seas: 'Beauty' bows strongly as 'Sense' steams on". Variety.
161.Jump up ^ Woods, Mark (February 8, 2000). "'Toy 2's' the story: 'Beach' bows balmy, but toon sequel sweltering". Variety.
162.^ Jump up to: a b Groves, Don (February 22, 2000). "Surf's high o'seas: Euro auds take to 'The Beach' for big bows". Variety.
163.^ Jump up to: a b Groves, Don (February 28, 2000). "Trio terrific o'seas: 'Toy,' 'Beach' and 'Beauty' garner boffo B.O.". Variety.
164.Jump up ^ Groves, Don (February 29, 2000). "Latins love 'Beauty': 'Beach' makes waves in Mexico and Italy". Variety.
165.Jump up ^ Groves, Don (March 7, 2000). "Oscar noms boost B.O. overseas". Variety.
166.Jump up ^ Hoffman, Bill (March 28, 2000). "Pretty Penny for 'Beauty'?". New York Post: 52.
167.^ Jump up to: a b "American Beauty: About the DVD". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2009.
168.^ Jump up to: a b Villa, Joan (April 28, 2000). "Beating Blockbuster on American Beauty". Video Business.
169.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Hettrick, Scott; Wendy Wilson (May 18, 2000). "B'buster hides best pic vid to squeeze D'Works". Variety.
170.^ Jump up to: a b Nichols, Peter M. (May 26, 2000). "On the Shelves (Or Maybe Not)". The New York Times: E28.
171.Jump up ^ Mendes & Ball 2000, chapters 19–20
172.Jump up ^ Perry, Vern (October 30, 2000). "These discs go to extremes". The Orange County Register.
173.Jump up ^ Fitzpatrick, Eileen (July 29, 2000). "Film Directors Assess DVD Extras' Pros, Cons". Billboard: 88.
174.Jump up ^ "American Beauty Blu-ray: Sapphire Edition". Blu-ray.com.
175.^ Jump up to: a b c Hentzi 2000, p. 46
176.Jump up ^ Chagollan, Steve (December 15, 1999). "Noms Watch: American Beauty". Variety.
177.Jump up ^ Klady, Leonard (September 20, 1999). "Toronto auds tap 'Beauty'". Variety.
178.Jump up ^ Vlessing, Etan (September 20, 1999). "'Beauty' counts at Toronto fest". The Hollywood Reporter.
179.^ Jump up to: a b c d e McCarthy, Todd (September 13, 1999). "American Beauty Review". Variety.
180.^ Jump up to: a b c d Maslin, Janet (September 15, 1999). "Dad's Dead, And He's Still a Funny Guy". The New York Times: E1.
181.^ Jump up to: a b Ebert, Roger (September 23, 1999). "American Beauty". Chicago Sun-Times.
182.^ Jump up to: a b c Hentzi 2000, p. 50
183.Jump up ^ Hentzi 2000, p. 47
184.Jump up ^ Hentzi 2000, pp. 49–50
185.^ Jump up to: a b c d Turan, Kenneth (September 15, 1999). "American Beauty: The Rose's Thorns". Los Angeles Times.
186.^ Jump up to: a b Kilday, Gregg (January 8, 2001). "Road to best pic: An 'American' dream". Variety.
187.Jump up ^ Brown, Joel (June 22, 2001). "The Tube Has Few Intriguing Choices to Offer". The Tuscaloosa News: 14.
188.^ Jump up to: a b Lowenstein 2008, pp. 271–272
189.Jump up ^ Staff (September 2005). "The 20 most overrated movies of all time". Premiere 19 (1): 103–108.
190.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Lyman, Rick (March 27, 2000). "Early Oscars to Caine, Jolie and 'Topsy-Turvy'". The New York Times.
191.^ Jump up to: a b c "American Beauty (1999)". New York Times Online. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
192.Jump up ^ Wallace, Amy (March 28, 2000). "Aggressive campaign may have helped 'Beauty's' win". The Journal Gazette. (Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times.)
193.Jump up ^ Karger, Dave (March 10, 2000). "Apple Juice". Entertainment Weekly (530).
194.Jump up ^ Lyman, Rick (March 28, 2000). "Oscar Victory Finally Lifts The Cloud for DreamWorks". The New York Times: E1.
195.Jump up ^ Staff (2011). "1999: Best Director". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
196.Jump up ^ McNary, Dave (March 23, 2000). "Pubs tap 'Beauty,' 'Wing'". Variety.
197.Jump up ^ Staff (March 2006). "The 201 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire: 77–88, 90–101
198.Jump up ^ Staff (September 2008). "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire.
199.Jump up ^ Savage, Sophia (February 27, 2013). "WGA Lists Greatest Screenplays, From 'Casablanca' and 'Godfather' to 'Memento' and 'Notorious'". Retrieved February 28, 2013.
200.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot
Bibliography
Anker, Roy M. (2004). "The War of the Roses: Meaning and Epiphany in American Beauty". Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company): 345–363. ISBN 0-8028-2795-0.
Bellantoni, Patti (2005). If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die (Oxford, UK: Focal Press): 25–27. ISBN 978-0-240-80688-4.
Booth, Wayne C. (Spring 2002). "Is There an 'Implied' Author in Every Film?". College Literature (West Chester, Pennsylvania: West Chester University) 29 (2): 124–131. ISSN 0093-3139.
Chumo II, Peter N. (January 2000). "American Beauty: An Interview with Alan Ball". Creative Screenwriting Magazine (Los Angeles: Creative Screenwriters Group) 7 (1): 26–35. ISSN 1084-8665.
Furby, Jacqueline (Winter 2006). "Rhizomatic Time and Temporal Poetics in American Beauty". Film Studies (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press) (9): 22–28. ISSN 1362-7937.
Hall, Ann C. (2006). "Good Mourning, America: Alan Ball's American Beauty". In Fahy, Thomas Richard. Considering Alan Ball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company): 23–32. ISBN 978-0-7864-2592-1.
Hausmann, Vincent (2004). "Envisioning the (W)hole World "Behind Things": Denying Otherness in American Beauty". Camera Obscura (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press) 19 (1): 112–149. ISSN 1529-1510.
Hentzi, Gary (Winter 2000). "American Beauty". Film Quarterly (Berkeley, California: University of California Press) 54 (2): 46–50. doi:10.1525/fq.2000.54.2.04a00060. ISSN 0015-1386.
Kazan, Nicholas (March 2000). "True Beauty". Written by (Los Angeles: Writers Guild of America, West): 24–37. ISSN 1055-1948.
Kemp, Philip (January 2000). "The Nice Man Cometh". Sight & Sound (London, UK: British Film Institute) 10 (1): 24–26. ISSN 0037-4806.
Link, Stan (Spring 2004). "Nor the Eye Filled with Seeing: The Sound of Vision in Film Author(s)". American Music (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Society for American Music) 22 (1): 76–90. doi:10.2307/3592968. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 3592968.
Lowenstein, Stephen, ed. (2008). "Sam Mendes on American Beauty". My First Movie: Take Two (New York: Pantheon): 243–275. ISBN 978-0-375-42347-5.
Mendes, Sam; Ball, Alan (October 2000). American Beauty, The Awards Edition: Audio commentary [DVD; Disc 1/2]. (Los Angeles: DreamWorks).
Munt, Sally R. (September 2006). "A Queer Undertaking: Anxiety and reparation in the HBO television drama series Six Feet Under". Feminist Media Studies (London, UK: Routledge) 6 (3): 263–279. ISSN 1471-5902.
Pennington, Jody W. (2007). The History of Sex in American Film (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group): 103–107. ISBN 978-0-275-99226-2.
Probst, Christopher (March 2000). "American Beauty". American Cinematographer (Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers) 81 (3): 80–82. ISSN 0002-7928.
Probst, Christopher; Heuring, David; Holben, Jay; Thomson, Patricia (June 2000). "Impeccable Images". American Cinematographer (Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers) 81 (6): 74–109. ISSN 0002-7928.
External links[edit]

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It Happened One Night
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For the album by Holly Cole, see It Happened One Night (album).

It Happened One Night
Gable ithapponepm poster.jpg
original poster

Directed by
Frank Capra
Produced by
Frank Capra
Harry Cohn
Screenplay by
Robert Riskin
Story by
Samuel Hopkins Adams
Based on
Night Bus 1933
Starring
Clark Gable
Claudette Colbert
Walter Connolly
Music by
Howard Jackson
Louis Silvers
Cinematography
Joseph Walker
Editing by
Gene Havlick
Distributed by
Columbia Pictures
Release dates
February 22, 1934 (US)
[1]
Running time
105 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$325,000[2]
Box office
$2,500,000[3]
 $2,000,000 (theatrical rentals)
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). The plot was based on the August 1933 short story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. It Happened One Night was one of the last romantic comedies created before the MPAA began enforcing the 1930 production code in 1934.
The film was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), a feat that would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In 1993, It Happened One Night was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[4] In 2013, the film underwent an extensive restoration.[5]


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception 4.1 Academy Awards
4.2 American Film Institute
5 Radio adaptation
6 In popular culture
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Plot[edit]
Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews (Claudette Colbert) marries fortune-hunter "King" Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father (Walter Connolly) who wants to have the marriage annulled. She runs away, boarding a bus to New York City, to reunite with her new spouse, when she meets fellow bus passenger Peter Warne (Clark Gable), an out-of-work newspaper reporter. Warne recognizes her and gives her a choice: if she will give him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with Westley. If not, he will tell her father where she is and collect the reward offered for her return. Ellie agrees to the first choice.
Soon penniless, Ellie has to rely completely on Peter. As they go through several adventures together, Ellie loses her initial disdain for him and begins to fall in love. When they have to hitchhike, Peter claims to be an expert on the subject. As car after car passes them by, he eventually ends up thumbing his nose at them. The sheltered Ellie then shows him how it's done. She stops the next car, driven by Danker (Alan Hale), dead in its tracks by lifting up her skirt and showing off a shapely leg.
When they stop for a break, Danker tries to drive off with their luggage. Peter chases him down and takes his car. One night, nearing the end of their journey together, Ellie confesses her love to Peter. Peter mulls over what she has said, decides he loves her too, and leaves to make arrangements after she has fallen asleep. When the owners of the motel in which they are staying notice that Peter's car is gone, they roust Ellie out of bed and kick her out.
Believing Peter has deserted her, Ellie calls her father, who is so relieved to get her back that he agrees to let her marry Westley. Meanwhile, Peter has obtained money from his editor to marry Ellie, but as he drives back to tell her, they pass each other on the road. Although Ellie has no desire to be with Westley, she believes Peter has betrayed her for the reward money, so once home she agrees to have a second, formal wedding and commit to her life with Westley.
Ellie tries to pretend that nothing has happened, but she is unable to fool her father. On her wedding day she finally reveals the whole story (as she sees it). When Peter comes to Ellie's home, Mr. Andrews offers him the reward money, but Peter insists on being paid only his expenses: a paltry $39.60. When Ellie's father presses him for an explanation of his odd behavior, Peter admits he loves Ellie (although he thinks he is out of his mind to do so), then storms out. King Westley arrives for his wedding via Kellett K-3 Autogiro NC12691.[6]
At the wedding ceremony, as Mr. Andrews walks his daughter down the aisle, he reveals Peter's refusal of the reward money to Ellie and quietly encourages her to run off again, telling her that her car is out back for a quick get-away. At the point where she is to say "I do," she makes up her mind. She runs off to find Peter. Her pleased father pays Westley off, enabling Ellie to marry Peter.
Cast[edit]
Clark Gable as Peter Warne
Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews
Walter Connolly as Alexander Andrews
Roscoe Karns as Oscar Shapeley, an annoying bus passenger who tries to pick up Ellie
Jameson Thomas as "King" Westley
Alan Hale as Danker
Arthur Hoyt as Zeke
Blanche Friderici as Zeke's wife
Charles C. Wilson as Joe Gordon, newspaper editor
Uncredited
Ernie Adams as the bag thief
Irving Bacon as Gas Station Attendant
George Breakston as Boy Bus Passanger
Ward Bond appears early in the film in an uncredited role as a bus driver
Bess Flowers as Gordons secretary
Production[edit]



 The hitchhiking scene
Neither Gable nor Colbert was the first choice to play the lead roles. Miriam Hopkins first rejected the part of Ellie. Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were then offered the roles, but each turned the script down, though Loy later noted that the final story as filmed bore little resemblance to the script that she and Montgomery had been offered for their perusal.[7] Margaret Sullavan also rejected the part.[8] Constance Bennett was willing to play the role if she could produce the film herself; however, Columbia Pictures would not allow this. Then Bette Davis wanted the role,[9] but was under contract with Warner Brothers and Jack Warner refused to lend her.[10] Carole Lombard was unable to accept, because the filming schedule conflicted with that of Bolero.[11] Loretta Young also turned it down.[12]
Harry Cohn suggested Colbert, and she initially turned the role down.[13] Colbert's first film, For the Love of Mike (1927), had been directed by Frank Capra, and it was such a disaster that she vowed to never make another with him. Later on, she agreed to appear in It Happened One Night only if her salary was doubled to $50,000, and also on the condition that the filming of her role be completed in four weeks so that she could take her well-planned vacation.[14]
According to Hollywood legend, Gable was lent to Columbia Pictures, then considered a minor studio, as some kind of "punishment" for refusing a role at his own studio. This tale has been partially refuted by more recent biographies. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not have a movie project ready for Gable, and the studio was paying him his contracted salary of $2,000 per week whether he worked or not. Louis B. Mayer lent him to Columbia Pictures for $2,500 per week, hence netting MGM $500 per week while he was gone.[15] Capra, however, insisted that Gable was a reluctant participant in the film.[16]
Filming began in a tense atmosphere as Gable and Colbert were dissatisfied with the quality of the script. However, they established a friendly working relationship and found that the script was no worse than those of many of their earlier films. Capra understood their dissatisfaction and tried to lighten the mood by having Gable play practical jokes on Colbert, who responded with good humor.[15]
Colbert, however, continued to show her displeasure on the set. She also initially balked at pulling up her skirt to entice a passing driver to provide a ride, complaining that it was unladylike. Upon seeing the chorus girl who was brought in as her body double, an outraged Colbert told the director, "Get her out of here. I'll do it. That's not my leg!"[17] Through the filming, Capra claimed, Colbert "had many little tantrums, motivated by her antipathy toward me," however "she was wonderful in the part."[17] After her acceptance speech at the Oscars ceremony, she went back on stage and thanked Capra for making the film.[18]



 Gable and Colbert in the movie's trailer
Reception[edit]
After filming was completed, Colbert complained to her friend, "I just finished the worst picture in the world."[17][19] Capra fretted that the film was released to indifferent reviews and initially only did so-so business. Then, after it was released to the secondary movie houses, word-of-mouth began to spread and ticket sales became brisk. It turned out to be a major hit, easily Columbia's biggest hit to date.[20]
In 1935, after her Academy Award nomination, Colbert decided not to attend the presentation, feeling confident that she would not win the award, and instead, planned to take a cross-country railroad trip. After she was named the winner, studio chief Harry Cohn sent someone to "drag her off" the train, which had not yet left the station, and take her to the ceremony. Colbert arrived wearing a two-piece traveling suit which she had the Paramount Pictures costume designer, Travis Banton, make for her trip.[21]
Academy Awards[edit]
The film won all five of the Academy Awards for which it was nominated:

Award
Result
Winner
Best Picture Won Columbia Pictures (Frank Capra and Harry Cohn)
Best Director Won Frank Capra
Best Actor Won Clark Gable
Best Actress Won Claudette Colbert
Best Writing, Adaptation Won Robert Riskin
At the 7th Academy Awards for 1934, It Happened One Night became the first film ever to win the "Big Five" Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing). To date, only two more films have achieved this feat: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.[22] Also, It Happened One Night was the last film to win both lead acting Academy Awards, until 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest also won both lead acting awards.
On December 15, 1996, Clark Gable's Oscar was auctioned off to Steven Spielberg for $607,500; Spielberg promptly donated the statuette to the Motion Picture Academy.[23] On June 9, the following year, Colbert's Oscar was offered for auction by Christie's. No bids were made for it.
American Film Institute[edit]
1998 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies #35
2000 AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs #8
2002 AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions #38
2007 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #46
2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 #3 romantic comedy
Radio adaptation[edit]
It Happened One Night was adapted as a radio play on the March 20, 1939 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater, with Colbert and Gable reprising their roles. The movie was also adapted as a radio play for the January 28, 1940 broadcast of The Campbell Playhouse.
In popular culture[edit]
It Happened One Night made an immediate impact on the public. In one scene, Gable undresses for bed, taking off his shirt to reveal that he is bare-chested. An urban legend claims that, as a result, sales of men's undershirts declined noticeably.[24] The movie also prominently features a Greyhound bus in the story, spurring interest in bus travel nationwide.[25]
The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng mention that this was one of his favorite films. It Happened One Night has a unique connection to the cartoon character Bugs Bunny with a minor character, Oscar Shapely, continually calling the Gable character "Doc", an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" mentioned once to frighten Shapely, and a scene in which Gable eats carrots while talking quickly with his mouth full, as Bugs does.[26]
Joseph Stalin was a fan of the film,[27] as was Adolf Hitler.[28]
Parodies of the film abound. The 1937 Laurel and Hardy comedy Way Out West parodied the famous hitchhiking scene, with Stan Laurel managing to stop a stage coach using the same technique.[29] Mel Brooks's film Spaceballs (1987) parodies the wedding scene. As she walks down the aisle to wed Prince Valium, Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) is told by her father, King Roland, that Lone Starr forsook the reward for the princess's return and only asked to be reimbursed for the cost of the trip.[30]
The film has also inspired a number of remakes, including the musicals Eve Knew Her Apples (1945) starring Ann Miller and You Can't Run Away from It starring June Allyson and Jack Lemmon, which was directed and produced by Dick Powell.[31]
Recent films have also used familiar plot points from It Happened One Night. In Bandits, (2001), Joe Blake (Bruce Willis) erects a blanket partition between motel room beds out of respect for Kate Wheeler's (Cate Blanchett's) privacy. He remarks that he saw them do the same thing in an old movie.[32] In Sex and the City 2, Carrie and Mr. Big watch the film (specifically the hitchhiking scene) in a hotel. In an earlier episode of Sex and the City, Samantha mimics Claudette Colbert by showing some leg to stop a taxi.[33] The wedding scene at the end of "Heartbreaker" is a reprise of the wedding scene in It Happened One Night.[34]
This film was also remade in Bollywood twice as Chori Chori starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis and Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin starring Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt. The story was readapted to screen in the 2007 Kannada movie "Hudugaata" starring Golden Star Ganesh and Rekha Vedavyas. All films became successful at the box office.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees
References[edit]
Notes
1.Jump up ^ Brown 1995, p. 118.
2.Jump up ^ Rudy Behlmer, Behind the Scenes, Samuel French, 1990 p 37
3.Jump up ^ "Box Office Information for 'It Happened One Night'". The Numbers. Retrieved: April 12, 2012.
4.Jump up ^ "National Film Registry". Library of Congress, accessed October 28, 2011.
5.Jump up ^ CreativeCOW, SHOOTonline, accessed November 22, 2013.
6.Jump up ^ http://www.dmairfield.com/airplanes/NC12691/index.html
7.Jump up ^ Kotsabilas-Davis and Loy 1987, p. 94. Note: Loy described the first script she saw as "one of the worst [that] she had ever read."
8.Jump up ^ Wiley and Bona 1987, p. 54.
9.Jump up ^ Weems, Erik. It Happened One Night - Frank Capra. Updated June 22, 2006.
10.Jump up ^ Chandler 2006, p. 102.
11.Jump up ^ McBride 1992, p. 303.
12.Jump up ^ "Loretta Young 1999." flickr.com. Retrieved: November 14, 2007.
13.Jump up ^ Karney 1995, p. 252.
14.Jump up ^ "All about Oscar." britannica.com.
15.^ Jump up to: a b Harris 2002, pp. 112–114.
16.Jump up ^ Capra 19171, p. 164.
17.^ Jump up to: a b c Pace, Eric. "Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, is Dead at 92." The New York Times, July 31, 1996, p. D21.
18.Jump up ^ McBride 1992, p. 326.
19.Jump up ^ "It Happened One Night." moviediva.com. Retrieved: December 7, 2009.
20.Jump up ^ McBride 1992, pp. 308–309.
21.Jump up ^ Sharon Fink. "Oscars: The Evolution of Fashion." St. Petersburg Times, February 24, 2007.
22.Jump up ^ "Awards." awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Retrieved: September 4, 2009.
23.Jump up ^ McKittrick, Rosemary. "Gable's Gold: Auction Cashes In On Hollywood Idol." liveauctiontalk.com. Retrieved: December 7, 2009.
24.Jump up ^ "The Shirt off his Back." snopes.com. Retrieved: December 7, 2009.
25.Jump up ^ "Historical Timeline." Greyhound. Retrieved: October 14, 2011.
26.Jump up ^ Dirks, Tim. " 'It Happened One Night' review." filmsite.org. Retrieved: December 7, 2009.
27.Jump up ^ "Why Stalin loved Tarzan and wanted John Wayne shot." The Daily Telegraph, April 6, 2004. Retrieved: December 7, 2009.
28.Jump up ^ Shirer 1985, p. 588.
29.Jump up ^ "Way Out West (1937)." Filmsite Review. Retrieved: October 14, 2011.
30.Jump up ^ Crick 2009, p. 158.
31.Jump up ^ Dirks, Tim. "It Happened One Night (1934) ." Filmsite Movie Reviews. Retrieved: November 17, 2011.
32.Jump up ^ Granger, Susan. "Bandits." All Reviews, 2001. Retrieved: October 14, 2011.
33.Jump up ^ imdb.com [http:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0698664/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
34.Jump up ^ IMDB. "Heartbreaker (2010) (original title: l'Arnacoeur)". IMDb. Retrieved: April 18, 2012.
Bibliography
Brown, Gene. Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry from Its Beginnings to the Present. New York: Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0-02-860429-6.
Capra, Frank. Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-306-80771-8.
Chandler, Charlotte. The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN 0-7432-6208.
Crick, Robert Alan. The Big Screen Comedies of Mel Brooks. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7864-4326-0.
Harris, Warren G. Clark Gable, A Biography. London: Aurum Press, 2002. ISBN 1-85410-904-9.
Hirschnor, Joel. Rating the Movie Stars for Home Video, TV and Cable. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International Limited, 1983. ISBN 0-88176-152-4.
Karney, Robyn. Chronicle of the Cinema, 100 Years of the Movies. London: Dorling Kindersley, 1995. ISBN 0-7513-3001-9.
Kotsabilas-Davis, James and Myrna Loy. Being and Becoming. New York: Primus, Donald I. Fine Inc., 1987. ISBN 1-55611-101-0.
McBride, Joseph. Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. New York: Touchstone Books, 1992. ISBN 0-671-79788-3.
Michael, Paul, ed. The Great Movie Book: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference Guide to the Best-loved Films of the Sound Era. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-13-363663-1.
Shirer, William L. Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941. Edison, New Jersey: BBS Publishing Corporation, 1985. ISBN 978-0-88365-922-9.
Wiley, Mason and Damien Bona. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. ISBN 0-345-34453-7.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: It Happened One Night
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to It Happened One Night (film).
It Happened One Night at the Internet Movie Database
It Happened One Night at allmovie
It Happened One Night at the TCM Movie Database
It Happened One Night at the American Film Institute Catalog
It Happened One Night at Rotten Tomatoes
It Happened One Night at Filmsite.org
It Happened One Night at Virtual History
Streaming audio
It Happened One Night on Lux Radio Theater: March 20, 1939
It Happened One Night on The Campbell Playhouse: January 28, 1940


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Categories: 1934 films
English-language films
1930s romantic comedy films
American romantic comedy films
American screwball comedy films
Best Picture Academy Award winners
Black-and-white films
Columbia Pictures films
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Frank Capra
Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award winning performance
Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
Films made before the MPAA Production Code
Films about journalists
Road movies
United States National Film Registry films
Films set in country houses







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