“American Beauty” is the 1990s film version of a satire on the ideal American dream of living in the suburbs. It was preceded by “The Graduate” in the 1960s, “Stepford Wives” in the 1970s and “Ordinary People” in the 1980s. “The best films about suburbia will inherently be those that peel back the veneer of clean lawns and nice cars to probe the true emotions beneath the surface, be they tragic, comic, melancholic, or a mercurial mix of all three.” (Web Design Schools, 2008) In American Beauty the characters may seem like ordinary people living in idyllic suburbs but at the same time you see the pain, frustration and remorse they are dealing with. The cinematographer uses several techniques to convey the theme of appearance versus reality, presenting the characters as they see themselves while at the same time showing the reality of their lives. In the first scene of the film there is an aerial view of an ideal suburb: charming houses, tree-lined streets and a church tower. On the surface, all houses are the same and ordinary. As you look at this shot, the camera zooms in to show Lester's house, where you expect to see the typical "man of the house going to work", but what you actually see are multiple shots of a man despised by his family while making dismal attempts to regain respect. Things don't get much better when he gets to work. In the first office scene, Lester appears to be confident and condescending as you see him talking on the phone to a client, but the in-focus shot of the ceiling, cubicle, and bright lights gives the viewer a truly oppressive feeling. The reality of Lester's oppression at work continues as soon as he enters his boss's office. In the end, you see him for who he really is, you grasp... in the middle of the paper... his perfections and the criticisms of others. The camera also focuses on Carolyn as she breaks with reality in the face of failure. The scene, in which she cannot sell a house, has a close-up of her abusing herself by screaming, crying, and slapping herself back into her altered reality. Although Carolyn appears to be socially adept, she is often filmed alone as she struggles to achieve the success she has created in her mind. “American Beauty” presents many facets of ordinary, predictable and typical scenes of suburban life with matching characters. Portraying the appearance of such a lifestyle can be done through costumes, narration, clichéd dialogue, or juxtaposition of scenery and props. In this satirical film the character's facade disappears while the reality of his life is presented to the audience in a fluid and continuous way thanks to the techniques of the cinematographer.