Being There

In one of his most finely tuned performances, Peter Sellers plays the pure-hearted, childlike 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 a remote, Chance stumbles into celebrity after being taken under the wing of a tycoon (Melvyn Douglas, in an Oscar-winning performance), who mistakes his protégé’s horticultural mumblings for sagacious pronouncements on life and politics, and whose wife (Shirley MacLaine) targets Chance as the object of her desire. 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.

Criterion 03/08/22 $19.97

1979

NR

715515195317

Drama

Movie

The Criterion Collection

864

2018-02-07 18:23:34

1.85:1

130

United States

2017-03-21

MPEG-2 (H.262)

480p

1.85:1

9.4 GB (DVD)

2

1

Snap Case

~$13.49

2026-04-12

2018-02-07 18:23:34