Peter Sellers
Chance ('Chauncey Gardiner')
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Being There is a 1979 American satirical comedy-drama film starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, and Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Hal Ashby, it is based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Jerzy Kosiński, and adapted for the screen by Kosiński and the uncredited Robert C. Jones.
Feb 8, 1980 · With Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden. After the death of his employer forces him out of the only home he's ever known, a simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful tycoon and an insider in Washington politics.
"Being There,'' directed by Hal Ashby, is a rare and subtle bird that finds its tone and stays with it. It has the appeal of an ingenious intellectual game, in which the hero survives a series of challenges he doesn't understand, using words that are both universal and meaningless.
Simple-minded Chance (Peter Sellers), a gardener who has resided in the Washington, D.C., townhouse of his wealthy employer for his entire life and been educated only by television, is forced to ...
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- Comedy
- PG
Mar 10, 2023 · Being There was a heartfelt satire of modern life, but it featured a surprise twist ending that left a lot of questions unanswered. Released in 1979 to rave reviews from critics, Being There was a unique film for the era and managed to weave a humorous story through subtle character moments.
Chance (Peter Sellers) is a middle-aged gardener who lives in the townhouse of a wealthy man in Washington D.C. Chance seems very simple-minded and has lived in the house his entire life, tending the garden, with virtually no contact with the outside world.
Hal Ashby's "Being There" is a movie that inspires those feelings. It begins with a cockamamie notion, it's basically one joke told for two hours, and it requires Peter Sellers to maintain an excruciatingly narrow tone of behavior in a role that has him onscreen almost constantly.
