Being There

In a word: Lovely.

Hal Ashby carved out a notable career making character driven oddities, including Harold and Maude. Being There is the film that united him with Peter Sellers, in a role that he deliberately sought after.

It's not hard to see why. Chancy Gardener (as he is humorously mistaken for) is a brilliant comic creation. Sellers plays a man in his 60's who has lived his whole life in the safety of his ailing fathers grand house. He cannot read, he cannot write, he cannot function as a proper human being. He spends his time gardening, being looked after by the maid and being entranced by the many TV sets littered around the home. He seems to live his life through the images he watches on the screens.

The film begins as we find his father lying dead in his bed, and Chancy unable to react to the passing of his only family. The maid leaves, and when a couple of attorneys come to claim the house, Chancy has no ability to reassert his possession. So, a man with no experience of the outside world and only a few choice phrases in his vocabulary, is turfed out onto the concrete streets. Parallels could be drawn with Harold; both living inside their own worlds and both forced to confront their fears through chance meetings.

Chancy's fateful meeting comes in the form of Eve, when she invites him back to her home to recuperate after her car hits him. The home is a huge grand mansion belonging to Ben a wealthy old financial advisor, with ties to the president. It's here that the film gets into gear, and Chancy becomes introduced to the high life. Ben and Eve's relationship is beautifully sketched out; the couple present genuine warmth and affection in the face of Ben's worsening illness. Both of them are charmed by Chancy's warmth and eccentricities, his vacant expressions and occasional pearls of wisdom. In a moment of generosity and love, Ben suggests that Eve take Chancy as her lover when he dies. There's some really funny but sweet scenes where we see Eve confused but desperately trying to initiate some romance between the two, while Chancy sits contentedly and obliviously.

As well as the love triangle, much humour is mined from Chancy's dalliances with politics. A meeting with the president results in Chancy's TV chatshow debut, where he uses gardening as a metaphor for the growth of the US economy, and inadvertantly presents himself as some kind of prophet. Although the film is lit up by its main character and the colourful supports, it also works really well as a satire of American politics and media. The farcical nature of a simpletons rise into fame.

In another directors hands Being There could be simply a broad comedy, or more likely just fall apart, but Ashby carries that same charm and mysteriousness, the same odd but true humour, as Harold and Maude. The tone is nicely dry yet playful, and nicely shot with Ashby's customary wide shots. But the real hero of the piece has got to be Peter Sellers as Chancy. With what could be a boring, cliched character, Sellers endows Chancy with heart and soul, and an endearing strangeness.

8/10