Being There (1979)

**Peter Sellers' big farewell in a film that highlights his more chivalrous side.**

There are films that, even though they're good, cannot be consensual, and this is one of them. It's a film that conquers admirers as easily as it accumulates people who didn't understand it or didn't like it for whatever reason. I confess that I liked it, but I can understand both sides. The film has qualities, but it also presents a story that is not pleasant, and that is so far-fetched that it could never actually take place in real life.

The film presents a friendly character who is not easy to be indifferent to: Chance is a gardener who loves what he does and is very good at taking care of plants, but who was educated in a very informal way, confined inside a man's house. boss he served his entire life, without ever leaving, without ever going to school, without having any idea of the world around that house. The only glimpse of the world he had was through television, which he watches daily and with pleasure. When the boss dies, he is evicted from that house by lawyers who were not even aware of his existence. Without education, home or even documents, he wanders around the city and, by luck, ends up in the house of a very rich banker, ingratiating himself with his family with his adages which, however vague and inconsistent they may be, are taken as authentic pearls. of wisdom.

I have no doubt that there are very wise people in the world who have never set foot in school nor know how to sign their name. These are people who, having not had the opportunity to attend education in their lives, replaced it with a rich life experience and have very valuable empirical knowledge. I know people like that. However, it is inconceivable that someone has lived their entire existence within a house where they serve without ever leaving for anything, and without having documents of any kind. The script makes a mistake here, it exaggerates its proposition, and people's reactions afterwards are equally exaggerated and unreasonable. I recognize this.

However, the beauty of the tale created around the figure of this gardener, who never loses his purity, his kindness, is undeniable. And we really have to surrender to Peter Sellers' magnificent performance. The actor provides us with a discreet and elegant work in which he highlighted his best features, a restrained, almost aristocratic posture and slow, absolutely clear and well-pronounced diction. Unfortunately, he is almost the only actor to deserve a positive rating: Shirley Maclaine, Melvyn Douglas and Jack Warden are good, but they appear absolutely bland and disinterested here.

When the "Old Man" who has provided "Chauncey" (Peter Sellers) with an home for most of his life dies, this erstwhile gardener finds himself homeless. Dressed in his finest handed-down suit and carrying his home in his suitcase, he emerges into the outside world without a clue. He has no money; he has nowhere to say, nothing to eat - he has no friends. He's like a full-sized infant whose only exposure to reality has been through the television. Luckily, he has a bit of a scrape with the limousine of "Eve" (Shirley MacLaine) and she takes him back to their palatial home to recuperate. She is intrigued by the simplicity of the man, but not so much as her father "Benjamin" (Melvyn Douglas). He is a sort of "Daddy Warbucks" character with huge wealth and equally extensive political influence - including with the President (Jack Warden). His and then their conversations with "Chauncy" are almost entirely carried out using nature as a term of reference. The planting and harvesting; the nurturing; the seasons; the good years and the bad - all of which resonate more with the millionaire as he begins to appreciate in far most basic terms those harmonies that are required to keep society - and thereby the more important economy - in synch. Meantime, as the benign influence of this man begins to grow, so does the affection for him from "Eve" and the curiosity in him from the security agencies who cannot find any information on this man. He doesn't even appear to have a birth certificate so is he really as pure as he appears or have the CIA been wiping records and not telling the FBI? Or vice versa? It's the expertly understated portrayal of an innocent character that Sellers delivers here that is both touching and thought-provoking. It challenges opinions, stereotypes and attitudes without overtly challenging anything. "Chauncey" invites us to look at our world through his eyes and that is quite revelatory be we saint or sinner. There is also a light-heartedness to this film that emanates not so much from deliberate comedy, but from the actions of a grown up untainted by cynicicm and who might prove to be the salvation many were - albeit unwittingly - awaiting. Though Sellers very much owns the film, Douglas serves really engagingly as his shrewd yet human counterfoil and with both MacLaine, Warden and Ruth Attaway's wise-cracking "Louise" supporting strongly, this is quite a poignant film about faith - in many of it's forms.