Being There

This article is about the film. For the novel, see Being There (novel). For other uses, see Being There (disambiguation).

Being There
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hal Ashby
Produced by	Andrew Braunsberg
Screenplay by	Jerzy Kosiński Uncredited: Robert C. Jones
Based on	Being There by Jerzy Kosiński
Starring	Peter Sellers Shirley MacLaine Jack Warden Melvyn Douglas Richard Dysart Richard Basehart
Music by	Johnny Mandel
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Edited by	Don Zimmerman
Production company	Lorimar Film Entertainment
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	December 19, 1979 (1979-12-19)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7 million
Box office	$30.1 million

Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby. Adapted from the 1970 novella by Jerzy Kosiński, the screenplay was written by Kosinski and the uncredited Robert C. Jones. The film stars Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard A. Dysart, and Richard Basehart.

Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor. The screenplay won the British Academy Film Award for Best Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

Being There was the last film featuring Sellers to be released in his lifetime. The making of the film is portrayed in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, a biographical film of Sellers' life. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Chance (Peter Sellers) is a middle-aged man who lives in the townhouse of an old, wealthy man in Washington, D.C. He is simple-minded and has lived there his whole life, tending the garden. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance naively says to the estate attorney that he has no claim against the estate, and is ordered to move out. Thus he discovers the outside world for the first time.

Chance wanders aimlessly. He passes by a TV shop and sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a chauffeured car owned by Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), an elderly business mogul. In the back seat of the car sits Rand's much younger wife, Eve (Shirley MacLaine).

Eve brings Chance to their home to recover. Drinking alcohol for the first time during the car ride home, Chance coughs as he tells Eve his name. Eve mishears "Chance, the gardener" as "Chauncey Gardiner". Chance is wearing expensive tailored clothes from the 1920s and '30s, which his benefactor had allowed him to take from the attic, and his manners are old-fashioned and courtly. When Ben Rand meets him, he assumes from these signs that Chance is an upper-class, highly educated businessman. Chance's simple words, spoken often due to confusion or to a stating of the obvious, are repeatedly misunderstood as profound; in particular, his simplistic utterances about gardens and the weather are interpreted as allegorical statements about business and the state of the economy. Rand admires him, finding him direct and insightful.

Rand is also a confidant and adviser to the President of the United States, (Jack Warden), whom he introduces to "Chauncey". The President likewise interprets Chance's remarks about the "garden" as economic and political advice. Chance, as Chauncey Gardiner, quickly rises to national public prominence. After his appearance on a television talk show, he becomes a celebrity and soon rises to the top of Washington society. He remains very mysterious, as the Secret Service is unable to find any background information about him. Public opinion polls start to reflect just how much his "simple brand of wisdom" resonates with the jaded American public.

Rand, dying of aplastic anemia, encourages Eve to become close to Chance. She is already attracted to him and makes a sexual advance. Chance has no interest in or knowledge of sex, but mimics a kissing scene that happens to be on the TV just then. When the TV scene ends, Chance stops suddenly and Eve is confused. She asks what he likes, meaning sexually; he replies "I like to watch", meaning television. She is momentarily taken aback, but decides she is willing to masturbate for his voyeuristic pleasure. As she becomes involved in the act, she does not notice that he has turned back to the TV and is watching it, not her.

Chance is present at Rand's passing, after which he talks briefly with Rand's physician, Dr. Allenby. During their conversation, Allenby realizes the truth - that Chance is merely a simpleminded gardener who knows nothing of finance or politics - but does not appear bothered by it. At Rand's funeral, while the President delivers a speech, the pall-bearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next term of office. As Rand's coffin is about to be interred in the family mausoleum, they unanimously agree on "Chauncey Gardiner".

Oblivious of all this, Chance wanders through Rand's wintry estate. He straightens out a pine sapling and then walks off across the surface of a small lake. He pauses, dips his umbrella into the deep water under his feet as if testing its depth, turns, and then continues to walk on the water as the President quotes Rand: "Life is a state of mind."

Cast

• Peter Sellers as Chance the Gardener, a.k.a. Chauncey Gardiner
• Shirley MacLaine as Eve Rand
• Melvyn Douglas as Ben Rand
• Jack Warden as The President
• Richard A. Dysart as Dr. Robert Allenby
• Richard Basehart as Vladimir Skrapinov, Soviet Ambassador to the United States
• Than Wyenn as Ambassador Gaufridi
• David Clennon as Thomas Franklin
• Fran Brill as Sally Hayes
• Ruth Attaway as Louise
• Denise DuBarry as Johanna
• Sam Weisman as Colson
• Alice Hirson as The First Lady
• Arthur Rosenberg as Morton Hull
• Jerome Hellman as Gary Burns
• James Noble as Kaufman
• John Harkins as Courtney
• Elya Baskin as Karpatov
• Oteil Burbridge as Lolo (Boy on Corner)
• Hoyt Clark Harris, Jr. as Riff, Secret Service agent

Filming

Principal filming occurred at the Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in America, located in Asheville, North Carolina.

Melvyn Douglas's granddaughter, Illeana, had a chance to visit the set and got to meet Peter Sellers, whom she considers to be her favorite actor. She has since credited the film for inspiring her to pursue a career in acting. According to Illeana, Sellers and Douglas had known each other since the 1940s when they first met in Burma during World War II. They often reminisced about the war days while on the set.

Sellers found it hard to act during the masturbation scene because he found Shirley MacLaine really attractive. The masturbation scene also served as the reason why Laurence Olivier turned down the role of Ben Rand.

According to MacLaine, "(Peter) believed he was Chauncey. He never had lunch with me... He was Chauncey Gardiner the whole shoot, but believing he was having a love affair with me."

Music

Incidental music is used very sparingly. What little original music is used was composed by Johnny Mandel, and primarily features two recurrent piano themes based on "Gnossiennes" No. 4 and No. 6 by Erik Satie. The other major piece of music used is the Eumir Deodato jazz/funk arrangement of the opening fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.

Mandel was also assisted by his late cousin and fellow composer Miles Goodman with the orchestration of the film.

Reception

The film opened to positive reviews and helped revitalize Sellers' comic career after he had starred in many movie flops, except for The Pink Panther movies. Film critic Roger Ebert mentions the final scene in his 2005 book The Great Movies II (p. 52), stating that his film students once suggested that Chance may be walking on a submerged pier. Ebert writes, "The movie presents us with an image, and while you may discuss the meaning of the image, it is not permitted to devise explanations for it. Since Ashby does not show a pier, there is no pier — a movie is exactly what it shows us, and nothing more."

Sellers won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance in Being There. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor as well at the 52nd Academy Awards, but he lost to Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer.

Melvyn Douglas won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

The credits at the film's end roll over an outtake, known as the "Rafael outtake." Sellers was later displeased that the outtake ran because he believed it took away from Chauncey's mystique. He also believed the outtake was what prevented him from winning the Oscar.

The film is ranked number 26 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list, a list released by the American Film Institute in 2000 of the top 100 funniest films in American cinema.

Home media

A 30th anniversary edition was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 2009.

See also

• Forrest Gump
• Politics in fiction
• The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma

References

Bibliography

External links

• Being There at IMDb
• Being There at AllMovie
• Being There at Box Office Mojo
• Being There at Rotten Tomatoes