Watch out, spoilers!
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Many times caught the eye of Hal Ashby's film "Being There" / 1979, but all somehow postponed viewing. I finally decided to look. The film was quite interesting. In one house dies an old man, along with him lived a black maid Louise and not very young gardener Chance (Peter Sellers). After the death of the old man, Louise leaves the house, and Chance is put on the streets by real estate agents who came to sell the house. He has no choice but to pack a suitcase and go outside, which, it turns out, he has to do for the first time in his life, until then he was forbidden to go outside. From that moment, amazing things begin to happen to him, but he reacts to them very calmly. It turns out that he always had mental problems, he grew up in an old man’s house, where he was considered a gardener, there really was a small kindergarten, he can’t read and write, as he honestly admits, the only thing he did, he watched TV wherever he could. Going out on the street, he finds himself first in a very dysfunctional area, in which, it turns out, this house was located, almost in the ghetto, then good to a more prosperous area, in which he will get under the car of a very rich lady Eve (Shirley McLane), and then to the house of this lady. Eve has a seriously ill husband, literally lives out the last days, so the house is almost turned into a clinic, where Chance is examined and begins to be treated by a doctor. Everything that Chance sees around him, he sees for the first time, often talks about it, although he is generally verbose, and then this absurd situation begins to develop - his words suddenly begin to be interpreted not literally, but figuratively, taking them literally for some revelations. His absolutely sincere manner of behavior attracts him as the owner of the house and his wife, as well as all their entourage up to the president, he gets on a TV show, all the agents try to find out his background, but absolutely nothing can be found and then they come to the conclusion that the files on him were destroyed by the special services. The only person who immediately understood what it was about was a doctor, he got to the truth, it was quite simple, but he never told anyone about it. The situation, of course, brought to the absurd, but very revealing, everyone heard and saw in the words and behavior of Chance what they wanted, what they used to hear and see. Interesting ending. The actors, of course, are good - in the role of a benevolent, but well-bred and dressed in costumes of his former owner, sewn somewhere else in the 20s - 30s stupid Peter Sellers, as Eve - Shirley McLane, as her husband Ben - Melvin Douglas.
I liked the movie.
