Being there

United States, 1979

Film
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Chauncey Gardener is a feeble-minded gardener whose life is centred on watching television. When his benefactor dies he is let loose on a world of which he cannot make sense, and which he cannot change with the remote control. An accident brings him into contact with Washington diplomats and business people and the inanities Chauncey learned from television sound like profundities to them. Soon he has met the U.S. President and Chauncey is on his way to ruling the world. This little gem of a movie, with its savage black comedy and cynical perspective on U.S. politics was released on the eve of Reagan’s election to President. With Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas. Based on the book by Jerzy Kosinski.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Hal Ashby

producer

Andrew Braunsberg

production company

Lorimar Film Entertainment

United Artists Corporation

Duration

02:10:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1979

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

302813

Language

English

Audience classification

MA

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q945074

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/81698--being-there/ |title=Being there |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=2 November 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}