Being There movie, starring Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Hal Ashby

Publicity still for Being There, 1979. Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. (Photo courtesy Movie Store)

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. Jack Warden, Richard Dysart and Richard Basehart are featured in support.

Plot summary:

In one of his most finely tuned performances, Peter Sellers plays the pure-hearted, childlike simpleton Chance, a gardener who is forced into the wilds of Washington, D.C., when his wealthy guardian dies. 

Shocked to discover that the real world doesn’t respond to the click of his TV remote, Chance stumbles into celebrity after being taken under the wing of a tycoon, Benjamin Rand (Melvyn Douglas, in an Oscar-winning performance), who together with his close friend The President of the United States (Jack Warden), both mistake his protégé’s horticultural mumblings for sagacious pronouncements on life and politics, and whose wife, Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) targets Chance as the object of her desire. 

She has previously misheard his name Chance the gardener as Chauncey Gardiner on their first meeting.

Adapted from a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, this satire, both deeply melancholy and hilarious, is the culmination of Hal Ashby’s remarkable string of films in the 1970s, and a carefully modulated examination of the ideals, anxieties, and media-fueled delusions that shaped American culture during that decade.

Publicity still for Being There, 1979. Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. (Photo courtesy Movie Store)

Cast:

Peter Sellers         Chance the gardener (Chauncey Gardiner)

Shirley MacLaine Eve Rand

Melvyn Douglas Benjamin Rand

Jack Warden         President Bobby (President of the United States of America)

Richard Dysart Dr. Robert Allenby

Richard Baseheart Russian Ambassador Vladimir Skrapinov

Ruth Attaway         Louise (Chance’s maid)

Dave Clennon         Thomas Franklin

Fran Brill         Sally Hayes

Credits:

Director         Hal Ashby

Produced by         Andrew Braunsberg

Screenplay by         Jerzy Kosinksi (author of the book upon which the film is based)

Additional Screenplay Robert C. Jones 

Music by         Johnny Mandel, Eric Satie, Eumir Deodato, Richard Strauss

The 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. 5 by Erik Satie. The other major pieces of music used are the Eumir Deodato jazz/funk arrangement of the opening fanfare from Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra and Basketball Jones by Cheech and Chong. These pieces respectively accompany the title credits and Chance's first arrival to the Biltmore Estate. Mandel was also assisted by his cousin and fellow composer Miles Goodman with the orchestration of the film.

Brazilian pianist and composer Eumir Deodato smiling. Venice, 1970s 

(Photo by Angelo Deligio / Mondadori Portfolio by Getty Images)

One of the most positively reviewed films of all time, Being There scores a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Melvyn Douglas won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 52nd Academy Awards in 1980 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Peter Sellers was nominated for Best Actor.

Being There theatrical release poster. (Photo courtesy IMDb)

First published at The Criterion Collection, March 2017. Additional material by site administrator, Tony Magee, October 2024