Being There

NOTE: This is a region-1 DVD which requires a region free DVD-player.

In one of his most finely tuned performances, Peter Sellers plays the pure-hearted, childlike Chance, a gardener who is forced into the wilds of Washington, D.C., when his wealthy guardian dies. Shocked to discover that the real world doesn’t respond to the click of a remote, Chance stumbles into celebrity after being taken under the wing of a tycoon (Melvyn Douglas, in an Oscar-winning performance), who mistakes his protégé’s horticultural mumblings for sagacious pronouncements on life and politics, and whose wife (Shirley MacLaine) targets Chance as the object of her desire. Adapted from a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, this satire, both deeply melancholy and hilarious, is the culmination of Hal Ashby’s remarkable string of films in the 1970s, and a carefully modulated examination of the ideals, anxieties, and media-fueled delusions that shaped American culture during that decade.

Special features:
– New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
– New documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team
– Excerpts from a 1980 American Film Institute seminar with director Hal Ashby
– Author Jerzy Kosinski in a 1979 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show
– Appearances from 1980 by actor Peter Sellers on NBC’s Today and on The Don Lane Show
– Promo reel featuring Sellers and Ashby
– Trailer and TV spots
– Deleted scene, outtakes, and alternate ending
– PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris