American Beauty (1999 film) and "Magnolia"). In 2006, the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay number 38 on its list of the 101 greatest screenplays. Annotations Footnotes Bibliography American Beauty (1999 film) American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in his feature film directorial debut. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a 42-year-old advertising executive 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,
Richard Lester of the Beatles, and in particular John Lennon. When the band members were contracted to make a feature film, they chose Lester from a list of possible directors. "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) showed an exaggerated and simplified version of The Beatles' characters, and proved to be an effective marketing tool. Many of its stylistic innovations survive today as the conventions of music videos, in particular the multi-angle filming of a live performance. Lester was sent an award from MTV as "Father of the Music Video." "A Hard Day's Night" was a huge critical and commercial success. Lester then directed