American Beauty

How this film uses it

Lester tells you in the opening voiceover that he will be dead within a year. Once you know that, every scene after it plays like a man already looking back at his own life from beyond it.

Where to see it

Lester's opening voiceover: 'My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood... In less than a year, I'll be dead.'

How this film uses it

Red roses show up in Carolyn's garden and in the famous rose-petal fantasy sequences around Angela. They become the film's visual signature for repressed desire, and for the gap between what America promises and what it delivers.

Where to see it

Angela lying in a bed of red rose petals in Lester's fantasy. Here, beauty is both an ideal and a delusion, and desire is both a liberation and a trap.

How this film uses it

The Burnham house is a showroom for suburban aspiration: pristine, tasteful and cool in its blues, but short on inner balance. The Fitts house next door is its reverse. It sits in exaggerated darkness and symmetry, with a depressed military palette.

Where to see it

The Burnham dining table, with its formal centerpiece and rigid seating. The set design tells you this family is putting on a show, and the show has replaced real intimacy.

How this film uses it

Lester narrates from after his death, which adds irony to every scene. He knows how it ends. His commentary swings between making fun of himself and a fairly hard-won clarity.

Where to see it

Ricky's plastic bag video. He describes the day he filmed it as 'one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air'.