"The chef prepares a special menu for your delight," Paul McCartney sings in the opening lines of his song "Vanilla Sky", the namesake of the 2001 psychological sci-fi thriller by Cameron Crowe. "Oh my, tonight you fly so high up in the vanilla sky/unbearable or great, you gotta love every hour/you must appreciate/this is your time, this is your day/you've got it all, don't blow it away." The entire story of Vanilla Sky describes a unique situation in which a character recreates his own mimesis, or representation of the world in which he lives; allowing for an in-depth exploration of reality vs. fantasy. When publishing superstar David Ames finds himself in a disfiguring car accident that disrupts the entire fabric of his silver-spoon existence, he signs a contract with a corporation promising him cryogenic freezing and his subconscious suspended in a lucid dream state after his death. Even before the viewer is aware of the narrative flipping between David's life and his death-dream, film techniques help highlight the difference between harsh reality and the fantasy world he creates for himself. Vanilla Sky includes a whopping 428 references to popular culture intentionally embedded by Cameron Crowe into the film, an incredibly detailed design of mise en scene that reflects both David's job at a pop culture magazine and the fact that he is constructing his dream world entirely from "reference" of the reality he knows. Within the frame, similarities can be drawn between a network of pop culture frenzy and the actual images on screen. For instance, it is revealed near the end of the scene that one shot of David and his love Sofia walking down a street completely parallels an album cover that David loved in his real life, The Freewallin' Bob Dylan. The psychologist that David talks to in his dream world bears an uncanny resemblance to Atticus Finch from the film To Kill A Mockingbird. Lighting is also an important difference to signify David's perfect construction of reality and the difference between the film's "reality" and "mimesis"-- during the last scenes that David can remember of his "real life", he goes out to a club with his old friends and finds himself dancing and drinking, wearing his latex mask to cover his disfigured face. During these scenes, he is washed over in flickering lights from the club. David is often entirely washed over in blue, creating an eerie representation of the man whose life is becoming a nightmare. The use of cool colors is exaggerated to overtake the viewer with the same unsettling, sickly, and ghost-like sensation that David is beginning to feel overtake his life. As David begins to find his life more and more harsh and uncomfortable, so does the viewer. This is contrasted later in the film, when the lighting sends a warm wash of color over David in the comfort of his constructed world. For instance, in the final scene of Vanilla Sky, the entire world appears tinted in a soft pink color. A halo effect is created behind the heads of David and the girl he loves, Sofia, as they stand on a rooftop in his pastel perfect world. In a film whose opening song (Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place") croons "there are two colors in my head", the use of warm vs. cool colors is clued as very important to the contrast of the two different words David experiences. The view from the rooftop in the final scene is a very expressionistic portrayal perfect for the science-fiction world, using stunning effects to make the clouds around David and Sofia look like something out of a Monet painting. The form in which David's world is portrayed correctly conveys the infinite possibility of his mind. A Sigur Ros song plays softly in the background, highlighting Cameron Crowe's ability to understand the emotional appeal of music as the high notes swing and fall, and in a moment of pure catharsis, David decides to jump off of the rooftop and end his dream to wake up in the real world. The kinetic symbolism of David plummeting across the screen and off the roof reflects his "letting go" of his dream and accepting reality as holding true value above fantasy. As the viewer absorbs these film techniques and watches David take his journey of rejecting his fantasies, they also undergo the same catharsis that David experiences in that final scene: the realization that the true world is preferable over a sugarcoated representation of it.
In terms of cinemetic style, Sam Mendes' film American Beauty (1999) is a much more realistic film. Mendes abandons jaw-dropping impressionist-inspired skies in favor of more "lackluster" portrayals of suburban houses and environments. The focus in American Beauty seems to be on the content rather than form. However, it still manages to fully immerse the reader into a character's mindscape, through the portrayal of a character "living their dreams" in a much more abstract way. From the first scene of the film, in which establishing shots track over a suburban town, the viewer is taught to sympathize and connect with the central character of Lester Burnham. A voiceover plays of Lester speaking, connecting the audience directly with him as a character. Lester lives a very monotonous and corporate-controlled life, stuck in a loveless marriage and never experiencing true joy. The scene in which the action of the film starts rolling is a scene in which Lester is dragged to watch his daughter Janie's dance performance at a high school sports game and sees Janie's friend Angela dancing out on the court at half time (1). For the first time, the film transitions into a scene of pure fantasy, moving the viewer into the character's flawed portrayal of life. The lighting in Lester's fantasy is very high-contrast, highlighting the drama and glamour that he feels in his perversion as he begins to sexualize the young girl. Movement is mechanically distorted into a slight slow-motion and atonal music clashes with odd bass sounds and drum clashes. The scene is almost perfectly symmetrical, showing Angela as the dominant contrast of every shot as she dances in the middle of the crowd. In the most notable highly symmetrical shot, Angela opens her jacket from the direct center and rose petals balloon out in all directions. These techniques are used to signify that Lester is fantasizing, not truly observing real life, and that the scene is a poor imitation of what's really happening. They also highlight Lester's unhealthy obsession through their dramatization, in some instances using left to right camera movement to create a strange eye movement for the viewer and suggest that the world Lester is creating is uncomfortable and unnatural. This distorted view of reality is mended later in the film when Lester comes to terms with his role as a father and accepts his aging, choosing to become grateful for his beautiful family instead of chasing his lost youth. In a scene in which he stands in his kitchen and wonders about his daughter's well being, Lester's face is lit entirely from above for the first time (2). Earlier in the film, the contours of actor Kevin Spacey's face were often exaggerated in shadow, lit from below to signify his slightly antagonistic nature. Being lit from above signifies his rebirth and acceptance of morality, almost reflective of a light "from heaven". Lester's death scene includes a heartbreaking anticipatory setup in which the camera pans over his white kitchen tile seconds before it is splattered with blood as his killer shoots him in the head. After his death, we are again immersed in Lester's representation of his life. However, now the images are accompanied by soft piano music and show him in left to right pans laying on his back as a child, admiring his cousin's new car, and admiring his family with fondness. This thematic montage is meant to truly show how much Lester has changed throughout the film. His mimesis has changed from an unhealthy, dramatized obsession into a true appreciation and love for "every single moment of [his] stupid, little life". (3)
Another 1999 film and and Cameron Crowe classic, Almost Famous, outlines a more complex tale of wonder and disillusionment with reality. Toeing the line between a standard a coming of age film and a musical, Crowe uses the function of music to signify time and locale-- selecting tunes from Led Zeppelin, The Who, Elton John, and dozens of other classic rock artists to immerse the reader in the period of rock and roll mania. Carefully cultivated costumes also have their function within the frame to solidify the time period and characterize each figure in Almost Famous-- the glamorous yet deceitful Penny Lane wears large furry coats and carefree summer clothes, Crowe's alter ego reflects his youth in baggy t-shirts and jeans, and the band Stillwater is dressed as rock and roll "outlaws" or "cowboys" (1). Almost Famous is the story of William Miller, a young teenager who is hired by Rolling Stone magazine to follow the upcoming band Stillwater in their tour and write an article about what he sees. Right away, this film also carries the central theme of the character's mimesis, or perception of reality. In the movie, his mentor Lester Bangs warns William that the world of rock stars is not what it's cut out to be, and that the musicians will use him to get what they want. Lester knows that the glamorous world of rock and roll is an illusion, but William loves rock and roll so much that he slowly forgets Lester's advice and "makes friends with the rock stars". In a scene where William accompanies a distraught rock star named Russell to a house party, the viewer begins to get a picture that something is wrong in the relationship between the stars and the band. Stillwater has just had a huge fight and Russell's future with the band is looking dubious as they enter the house. The party is very densely textured, showing bodies and heads everywhere layered within the frame, but William is always shown somewhere between 5 and 20 feet away from Russell. This establishes a social or public proxemic pattern that exemplifies the vast difference between their characters. In one shot, Russell stands on a roof above the mass of the party and screams the words "I am a golden god". The camera shows an aerial over the shoulder shot of Russell's birds-eye-view on the partygoers, symbolic of his position "above" them in the social order and his invincibility that he feels as a star (2). The viewer is immersed in the surreal experience that William is having as he comes to terms with the huge ego of a superstar and the turmoil that the emotional distance of the musicians brings on everyone. This experience foreshadows a later scene, in which the band totally rejects his article and ruins the end of his tour and relationship with the Rolling Stone editors. William is crushed because his perfect perception of reality has been destroyed. In the words of Lester, "They made you feel cool, and hey, I met you. You are not cool." William's perception of rock and roll as a perfect haven has been disrupted, and his fantasy destroyed. However, throughout the movie, hints of the real value of music are sprinkled in. In one of the most poignant scenes, William's beautiful friend Penny Lane spins and dances on a trashed floor to Cat Stevens' "The Wind" (3). The pure beauty of the music and Penny's reaction exemplifies the quality of music that William loves, and that Lester says makes it "a place apart form the vast, benign lap of America." William's final realization when writing his article is that he can't just write a piece that glorifies the band into superstars, but he also can't forgo that beautiful and emotional poignance of music that made him fall in love with rock in the first place. William decides to write his article with a mimesis that includes everything-- the good, the bad, and the ugly of his tour with rock and roll. This experience proves very cathartic for William as he processes his experiences and feelings towards music, and for the viewer as they realize that a true view of life includes both the amazing parts and the unpleasant parts.
Every young child, teenage student, and adult alike knows the exquisite pleasure of simply sitting and daydreaming: constructing fantasies that excite the mind, but have little to do with real life. Whether that fantasy be a perfect world with the girl you love, the "sexy" image of youth that you lost, or the invincible godlike quality of rock and roll; fantasy often allows people to cope with the reality of their lives. However, when this fantasy becomes an unhealthy crutch, a "dose of reality" can lead to an awakening in all of us. Through the use of film techniques in photography, mise en scene, movement, editing, and sound; directors Cameron Crowe and Sam Mendes help illuminate the flaws in fantasy and the catharsis of accepting the true world. The characters of David Ames, Lester Burnham, and William Miller all undergo a journey in their respective films that illuminate a realistic mimesis and change each character as a whole and dynamic person. Watching these experiences as a viewer helps adjust the mind, and when exiting the "fantasy" of the film into the "reality" after leaving the theater, we undergo our own cathartic experience. The world around us is illuminated in new understanding: how we choose to perceive the world is instrumental to our mental and even spiritual landscape. When, as Sylvia Plath or Joan Didion would say, we write down our world as we experience it, what has changed from the life itself?
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