American Beauty explores the pent-up frustration that is building in modern, every-day suburban life. The film portrays a group of neurotic characters that deal with their frustrations and anxieties in different ways. By the filmmakers portraying this so well in the film, the viewer of American Beauty becomes a subject by receiving the discourse of 'suburban anxiety' via the film. The viewer as a subject is able to respond to this discourse by identifying with the characters and the situations they find themselves in. Therefore, the viewer assumes the position of the characters portrayed in the film: "The film is not about these characters, it is really about you (the viewer)". For this reason, 'American Beauty' has become one of the most popular and critical successes of recent times.
This communication is dependant on the viewer having an understanding of the discourse prior to watching the film (otherwise they would not be able to understand and/or identify with it), and it is also dependant on the filmmakers having an understanding of the discourse (so that they can construct it in to a series of images). In this respect, a film is nothing unless an audience watches it and is capable of comprehending the discourse the film is delivering to them. The down-side to this communicable exchange between filmmaker and viewer is that there will be times when the two will be unable to communicate (that is, the discourse a filmmaker presents to the viewer may not be understood or relevant to the viewer), thus interpellation is entirely dependant on ideas that filmmakers and viewers share.
Ben Warner is an independent filmmaker. He has made three feature films and six short films through production company Digicosm ( http://www.digicosm.com ). Warner administers the DVD review web site All About Movies.net ( http://www.allaboutmovies.net ) and runs the independent film distribution channel, The Trial Of Film.com ( http://www.thetrialoffilm.com ).
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