Being There

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Being There

PG

1979

2h 9m

Comedy

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

95%

Tomatometer

64 Reviews

92%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

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 vacate his home when his boss dies. While wandering the streets, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman. Soon Chance is ushered into high society, and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town.

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Critics Consensus

Smart, sophisticated, and refreshingly subtle, Being There soars behind sensitive direction from Hal Ashby and a stellar Peter Sellers performance.

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Joe Pollack

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

04/07/2022

Under the direction of Hal Ashby, in his first film since Coming Home, Sellers gives an impressively disciplined performance, always taut and under control. The difficulty with the film, however, is that the screenplay is basically a one-joke story.

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Ed Potton

The Times (UK)

01/17/2020

4/5

Gently directed by Hal Ashby, this satire of a ruling class in which nobody knows anything is almost plausible, and certainly topical.

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Richard Combs

Sight & Sound

01/16/2020

The result must be one of the boldest of commercial comedies, for the way it turns on passages of dead time, the dreadful pauses while other characters struggle to see the significance in each of Chance's cryptically meaningless remarks.

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

Jan 11

5/5

…a final flourish of comic genius from Peter Sellers…still an extraordinary film by Hal Ashby, stripping back layers of modern pretensions and viewing a chaotic world with a child’s innocence and insight…’

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Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

Oct 20

5/5

Decades later, Being There endures not just for Sellers’ quietly brilliant performance, but as a sharp, prescient satire of celebrity, media, and political obsession—a comedy that feels as timely today as it did in 1979.

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Bianca Garner

Filmotomy

10/03/2024

Being There is simply reminding us of how fragile our state of being actually is.

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revolver.0 8

@Revolver08 Feb 10

a bit dragged to the point of tragic satire and irony of real world state of mind

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Peter V

@RT78913669 Feb 2

An accident involving a friend of the U.S. President grants Chance (Peter Sellers) access to the political machine, where he unexpectedly wields influence in the high command and even lands on national television. Being There serves as a fine final film moment for actor-comedian Peter Sellers, who passed away shortly after its release. Sellers and Melvyn Douglas deliver stellar performances, while Richard Dysart offers an effective and sensitive portrayal as a doctor. The closing credit sequence is particularly amusing, a kind of parody of themselves; also the scene with a jazzed-up version of Also Sprach Zarathustra by Eumir Deodato emphasises Chance’s innocence in the face of the gritty urban landscape. Somewhat works as a satirical parable of the lack of spiritual substance in high command where the simple Chance acts as kind of mediator. Amusing and involving, but with off-putting profanity in places.

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Jason C.

@Jake318 Jan 2

Honest and representative of a humble man that succeeds through being present and honest.

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Mo S.

@9mr_0 Dec 9

واحد من اجمل افلام السينما الكلاسيكية

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Patrick C

@RT84374237 Nov 16

A delightful film, gently amusing and deeply moving in equal measure. Sellers is masterful, saying so much by saying so little.

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Kyle M

@RT77296778 Oct 23

Sellers show evident passion in his performance, a mechanical conduit for the relevant satire that both foretold political television relationships and devil’s advocate on the platform’s ideological delivery, consequentially demeaning its conveyed messaging whilst substantially bland besides the intentions plus its framework. (B-)

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Hal Ashby

Director

Peter Sellers

Chance ('Chauncey Gardiner')

Shirley MacLaine

Eve Rand

Jack Warden

President 'Bobby'

Melvyn Douglas

Benjamin Turnbull Rand

Richard Dysart

Dr. Robert Allenby

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Synopsis

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 vacate his home when his boss dies. While wandering the streets, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman. Soon Chance is ushered into high society, and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town.

Director: Hal Ashby
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg
Screenwriter: Jerzy Kosinski
Distributor: United Artists, Warner Bros.
Production Co: NatWest Ventures, Northstar, BSB, Enigma, Lorimar Film Entertainment, CIP, Fujisankei
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 19, 1979, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2015
Runtime: 2h 9m
Sound Mix: Mono

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