BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's... more
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Being There [1979]
Hal Ashby's much-praised Being There stars Peter Sellers in what was perhaps his finest
... more
comic performance. Chance the gardener has spent his entire life in an old man's house and has no idea of the world outside except for what television has given him...
Being There [1979]
Hal Ashby's much-praised Being There stars Peter Sellers in what was perhaps his finest
... more
comic performance. Chance the gardener has spent his entire life in an old man's house and has no idea of the world outside except for what television has given him...
Advantages: Great performances, great story Disadvantages: -
...is as close to pure being and a human being can be. Unspoilt by intellect, education, or experience of society, Chance the Gardener has been raised in a protective environment where he main concern is for plants, other living things coming close to simple being, and for a mindless attentiveness to the television that washes over him like a halo, providing him with sufficient information to make others around him believe he is wise and knowledgeable.
... ...backs up to watch himself being displayed from the video camera, and is injured by a passing car belonging to Benjamin Rand, wealthy financier and kingmaker. Mrs. Rand is in the car (played astutely by Shirley MacLaine), and insists on taking Chance (who, while taking his first alcoholic drink, garbles the words to the degree that she mishears his name, becomes at this point Chauncey) back to the Rand estate, where doctors and nurses are in attendance ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: A touching, subtle, satire, with wonderful characterisation by Sellers. Disadvantages: If it's car chases, explosions, SFX, CGIs, or murders you're after look elsewhere.
...play Chance the gardener in Being There, I have realized that ambition, and so I have no more."
He died the following year.
"Being There" is the story of Chance (Peter Sellers) a simpleton whose naive inanities are mistaken for profound thoughts when he is forced to venture out into the big wide world he has only ever seen on television.
Sellers wanted to make this film from the moment he read Jerzy Kosinski's book in 1971. He identified with ... ...to the author which he signed: "Chance the gardener".
Unfortunately Sellers' film star status was on the wane at that time. However, he made a pact with director Hal Ashby that as soon as one of them gained the necessary box office clout they would make the film together. And so Sellers was persuaded to make "The Return of the Pink Panther" and "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" - entertaining the public and winning back the support of the moneymen. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: A perfectly understated movie with Sellers shining in top billing Disadvantages: that Sellers so rarely made films of this quality
...far too qucikly, even after 130 minutes, so spellbinding is the entire production.
Scheduled for a mid February DVD release, which is regrettably devoid of extras, 'Being There' is a film to fall in love with.
Getting there is half the fun; being there is all of it! ...
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Advantages: Shear Innocent Delight Disadvantages: somewhere I expect
I'm afraind I'm not summerising this film in my review. If you want to know the plot, watch the film. My review is purely about the effect it has on me...
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I love this film, Peter Sellers plays Chancey Gardner (aka Chance the Gardner), a pure innocent who has spent his 40+ year life in the seclusion of a walled garden with only the company of the Old Man, the house owner; and the owners maid. When the old man dies, Chance is forced to leave ... ...of American power in the home of a dying billionare.
Chance is a wonderful character. Like Tyler Durden in Fight Club, Chance is a character with traits that you want to see in yourself (but for completely different reasons). His complete innocence boils down the complexities of power and manipulation into basic elements turning problems into soloutions based on the only thing he really understsands - gardening.
His simple outlook on life makes ...
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Actor(s): Peter Sellers, Shirley Maclaine, Jack Warden, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Basehart, Richard Dysart
Director(s): Hal Ashby
Genre: Comedy
Classification: 12 years and over
Production Year: 1979
Running Time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Plot: Oscar-winning comedy tale of a feeble-minded man who, with the right connections, gains the ear of the U.S. President. His simple-mindedness is mistaken for genius, and he is acclaimed as a worldly-wise philosopher and talked of as a potential presidential candidate.
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): WARNER HOME VIDEO; CINRAM LOGISTICS
Release date: 10/02/2003
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: D 000938
Barcode: 7321900009386
Author: Jerzy Kosinski
Languages
Main Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical
Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital Mono English
DVD Description
BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, he's fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. He's mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon he's meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where he's a natural. Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.
Award information
OSCAR: Best Actor In A Supporting Role 1980 (Melvyn Douglas)
