This stunning film debut by theatre director Sam Mendes swept the board at the Oscars, picking up five awards for its devastating portrayal of suburban America.

Kevin Spacey plays a burnt-out ad exec in the throes of a mid-life crisis and a marriage breakdown with his wife, Annette Benning.

Both partners stray, Benning into an ill-advised affair with a rival realtor, Spacey into a fantasy of inappropriate lust cushioned with rose petals. Teenage angst is brought to the fore, along with the hypocrisy barely under the surface of many relationships.

With a script expertly crafted by Alan Ball, who also claimed an Oscar on his filmic debut, ‘American Beauty’ is the kind of film you can see again and again, and still find new meanings.

Great soundtrack, too. Being screened at the bijou Bem Cinema, in original English with Hungarian subtitles.

Place: Bem Cinema

Address: 1027 Budapest, Margit krt. 5