American Beauty - the flying plastic bag

After writing about "My life on the clothes-line" I came across the famous "flying plastic bag" scene from the movie "American Beauty" from 1999 directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball.

There are many interpretations whether the film is a mystery story, a kaleidoscopic journey through American suburbia, a series of love stories or whether it deals with loneliness and beauty. Many of the scenes are about life in general and deals with issues such as hate, anger and frustration. And it is sometimes hard to figure out whether it is a funny drama or a serious comedy.

But the reason it is mentioned here is that from my point of view, one of the main messages of the film is to show that even in situations of utterly ugliness, there is beauty in everything - even if it at first sight looks insignificant, meaningless or boring. In this perspective even an inharmonious plastic bag floating and dancing in the wind above a parking lot in front of a wall on a cold gray day becomes beautiful. As the plastic bag is representing the real value of life and beauty, so are the swing patterns of the clothes-line a kind of carrier wave at which I in the end find my personal resonance in order to bring everything into better harmony.

In the film Ricky recognizes the beauty of everyday life in small things and shoots a video of as much as he can in fear of missing it. The scene with the flying plastic bag is what he considers the most beautiful thing he has ever captured. He tells Jane that the dancing plastic bag got him to realize that there is "an entire life behind things" and he feels that "sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it ... and my heart is going to cave in".
 
Take a look at the flying plastic bag scene with Ricky and Jane...