Synopsis
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- Peter SellersChance
- Shirley MacLaineEve Rand
- Melvyn DouglasBenjamin Rand
- Jack WardenPresident 'Bobby'
- Richard DysartDr. Robert Allenby
- Richard BasehartVladimir Skrapinov
- Ruth AttawayLouise
- David ClennonThomas Franklin
- Fran BrillSally Hayes
- Denise DuBarryJohanna Franklin
Recommandations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
It's a movie based on an idea, and all the conventional wisdom agrees that emotions, not ideas, are the best to make movies from. But Being There pulls off its long shot and is one of the most confoundingly provocative movies of the year. - 100
The Hollywood Reporter
Hal Ashby's direction is perfect in realizing the offbeat humor and gentle satire of the piece. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Jerzy Kosinski's modern fable gets a terrific translation to the screen due to his tight screenplay, capable direction by Ashby, and a marvelous performance by Sellers, one unlike any other in his career. - 91
The A.V. Club
Being There finds humor in the way Sellers becomes a blank screen on which people project their expectations. But it also finds value in his simplicity, which might seem like a lot of New Age hokum if not for Sellers' disarmingly quiet performance. - 90
Variety
Being There is a highly unusual and an unusually fine film. A faithful but nonetheless imaginative adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's quirky comic novel, pic marks a significant achievement for director Hal Ashby and represents Peter Sellers' most smashing work since the mid-1960s. - 88
Slant Magazine
Elegiac and yet ruefully funny, Hal Ashby’s Being There is at once a profoundly philosophical fable about how we become truly human only in the face of our ineluctable mortality, as well as an incensed satire intent on skewering the mass media’s unhealthy sway among the corridors of wealth and power. - 80
Time
Here is a comedy that valiantly defies both gravity and the latest Hollywood fashion. - 80
The New York Times
Hal Ashby directs Being There at an unruffled, elegant pace, the better to let Mr. Sellers's double-edged mannerisms make their full impression upon the audience.
