Análisis existenciario heideggeriano en las películas American Beauty y Lost in Translation

Abstract

This thesis analyzes, from an existential philosophical perspective, how Martin Heidegger’s notion of Dasein’s authenticity can be interpreted and applied in contemporary contexts through film analysis. Drawing from the fundamental categories in Being and Time, it explores human experiences of meaning-seeking, anxiety, self-evasion, and the possibility of appropriating one’s own existence. To this end, two representative films are examined: American Beauty and Lost in Translation, in which the existential experiences of the protagonists are articulated with the conditions of authentic or inauthentic existence described by Heidegger. The research shows that these films, far from being mere fictional narratives, serve as philosophical spaces that allow for a critical reflection on contemporary modes of being. The analysis highlights that authenticity is not a fixed state or abstract ideal, but a fragile possibility that demands decision, openness, and confrontation with nothingness. Thus, cinema becomes a valid tool for philosophically questioning our existence, revealing the hermeneutic character of all understanding of being.