Being There (1979)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Hal Ashby

Writers:

Jerzy Kosinski (novel)
Jerzy Kosinski (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 December 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

Getting there is half the fun; being there is all of it!

Plot:

Chance, a simple gardener, has never left the estate until his employer dies. His simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity.

Plot Keywords:

Gardener | Washington D.C. | Political | Television | Businessman

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 10 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Chance
Shirley MacLaine	...	Eve Rand
Melvyn Douglas	...	Benjamin Turnbull 'Ben' Rand
Jack Warden	...	President 'Bobby'
Richard Dysart	...	Dr. Robert Allenby
Richard Basehart	...	Vladimir Skrapinov
Ruth Attaway	...	Louise
David Clennon	...	Thomas Franklin (as Dave Clennon)
Fran Brill	...	Sally Hayes
Denise DuBarry	...	Johanna Franklin
Oteil Burbridge	...	Lolo
Ravenell Keller III	...	Abbaz
Brian Corrigan	...	Policeman by White House
Alfredine P. Brown	...	Old Woman asked for lunch (as Alfredine Brown)
Donald Jacob	...	David

Also Known As:

Chance

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:AL | South Africa:PG | Finland:K-11 (2001: new rating) | Finland:K-12 (before new act of 2001) | France:U | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2003) | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:AA (original rating) | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 (1980) | Sweden:11 | USA:PG | West Germany:6 | Canada:14A | Singapore:PG | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Company:

BSB

Trivia:

The inscription "Life is a state of mind" is on Rand's tomb and also serves as the last line in the movie. These words were also inscribed on Peter Sellers' own tomb, when he died a year after the movie was released.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Chance is watching himself on the large screen in the store window display, he uses his home remote control to try and change the channels on that set, but it controls another TV instead. However the remote is of the earlier "ultrasonic" technology, and these sound waves DO NOT pass through glass at the required strength needed to work. Those of us born before the movie can recall that jiggling your keys would make a remote controlled TV unwittingly change channels, or turn off and on. At about this same time the now common "infrared" RCs were coming out, albeit at outrageous prices. These signals CAN in effect pass through glass, despite some losses due to reflection. For the scene to be technically correct they should have used an IR remote, which would not make those "ringing bell" metallic sounds.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Chance the Gardener: Good morning, Louise.
Louise: He's dead, Chance. The old man's dead.
Chance the Gardener: I see.
[Chance goes back to watching TV]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Camilla (1994)

Soundtrack:

Different Ways

A great work from two great men

On the face of it, this was always going to be a cinematic treat. Hal Ashby, who in my opinion had the greatest sense of humour in Hollywood directing Peter Sellers, one of the finest comic actors of all time.

What i didn't expect was an excellent supporting cast with superb performances from Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas and a watertight script from Kosinski. What gave me the biggest pleasure was Ashby's subtle portrayal of his own politics. Sellers' character's rise and rise is set against, in the beginning at least, images of the socially deprived. In most of Ashby's films there is a strong sense of the anti-establishment but what is brilliant in this movie is that Ashby gets inside the establishment to ridicule it and yet at the same time bring across a strong sense of humanity in the richer character's isolation and loneliness.

Politics or not Ashby's perfect pacing bring the best out of Sellers whose film career, Strangelove aside, was hit and miss. This movie is definitely a hit from the most underrated film director Hollywood has ever had the arrogance to forget to miss.