Review of Being There (2011) by Hugo V — 05 Sep 2015

-Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby. Adapted from the 1970 novella by Jerzy Kosinski, the screenplay was written by Kosinski and the uncredited Robert C. Jones. The film stars Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard A. Dysart, and Richard Basehart.

Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.[2] The screenplay won the 1981 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Film) Best Screenplay Award and the 1980 Writers Guild of America Award (Screen) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium. It was also nominated for the 1980 Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

Being There was the last film featuring Sellers to be released in his lifetime. The making of the film is portrayed in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, a biographical film of Sellers' life.

-Principal filming occurred at the Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in America, located in Asheville, North Carolina.

Reception:

-The film opened to positive reviews and helped revitalize Sellers' comic career after he had starred in many movie flops, except for the Pink Panther movies. Film critic Roger Ebert mentions the final scene in his 2005 book The Great Movies II (p. 52), stating that his film students once suggested that Chance may be walking on a submerged pier. Ebert writes, "The movie presents us with an image, and while you may discuss the meaning of the image, it is not permitted to devise explanations for it. Since Ashby does not show a pier, there is no pier - a movie is exactly what it shows us, and nothing more.".

Sellers won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Being There. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor as well at the 52nd Academy Awards, but he lost to Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer. Hoffman, upon receiving the award, remarked that he refused to believe that he had beaten Sellers, or any of the other nominees.

Melvyn Douglas won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance.

The credits at the film's end roll over a humorous outtake, known as the "Rafael outtake." Sellers was later displeased that the outtake ran because he believed it took away from Chauncey's mystique. He also believed the outtake was what prevented him from winning the Oscar.

The film is ranked number 26 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list, a list released by the American Film Institute in 2000 of the top 100 funniest films in American cinema.