Being There

Comedy, Drama

Shirley MacLaine	Eve Rand
Peter Sellers	Chance
Richard Basehart	Vladimir Skrapinov
Melvyn Douglas	Benjamin Turnbull Rand
Jack Warden	President 'Bobby'
Richard A. Dysart	Dr. Robert Allenby
Ruth Attaway	Louise
David Clennon	Thomas Franklin
Fran Brill	Sally Hayes
Denise DuBarry	Johanna, girl with Franklin
Richard Dysart	Dr. Robert Allenby

Réalisateur	Hal Ashby
Producteur	Charles Mulvehill; Jerzy Kosinski; Andrew Braunsberg
Auteur	Jerzy Kosinski; Robert C. Jones

A simple-minded gardener named Chance (Peter Sellers) has spent his entire life employed by a man who cares for him and sees to all his needs. When the man dies, Chance is forced to leave, but is ill-equipped to survive on his own. He has few coping skills and, apart from what he knows about gardening, he only knows information learned from watching television. After being hit and injured by a limousine, Chance is befriended by Eve (Shirley McClain) and her husband, Ben (Melvyn Douglas), an ailing, influential businessman with political clout. The couple take him in and care for him. Ben sees Chance – whom he calls “Chauncey Gardiner” – as a confidante and sage adviser. This catapults Chance, and uncomfortably so, into the media spotlight.