Snakes on Peter Sellers

I watched Being There a little while ago, and I thought it was really enjoyable and fun to watch. Sellers plays a simple-minded man who only cares about gardening and watching TV. Events put him in a position to influence a wealthy businessman's last days, the President's economic policy, and the passions of Shirley MacLaine.

Chance the Gardener becomes Chauncey Gardner, and he responds to just about every situation with comments about either gardening or television. Everything he says happens to correspond in some analogical way to the subject at hand (especially gardening and economics). The big thing I'll take away from the movie is how everyone talking to him sort of turns him into a mirror of themselves. They all assume that he's just like them. The black kids on the street believe he works for a rival gang. The dying rich man thinks he's a businessman trying to make a living who's being haggled by lawyers. The Russian ambassador thinks he speaks Russian. The gay guy thinks he's gay. Everyone who speaks to him receives either confirmation of their own world view, or the "enlightenment" that comes from speaking to an oracle. I think the latter also happens whenever someone simultaneously stops listening to their voice and starts listening to the words. Then they realize what it is that they've been thinking and saying, and gain a new perspective. "Chauncey" brings this out in a lot of people.

Peter Sellers was nominated for Best Actor, and Melvyn Douglas won for Best Supporting. Good movie, fun, poignant at times, and worth your time.

One more note: The disco version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and the way they worked it into Chance leaving the house for the first time was very clever.