BEING THERE - Peter Sellers' final magnum opus remastered on DVD & Blu-ray (Feb 3)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Getting there is half the fun; being there is all of it!

"I like to watch." -Chauncy Gardner (Peter Sellers) to Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) from Being There

"A stately, beautifully acted satire... Sellers never strikes a false note." -Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Deadpan farce... Sellers in his greatest performance." Rating: A- -Joe Neumaier, Entertainment Weekly

BEING THERE Remastered on DVD & Blu-ray »
-Includes New Additional Scenes, Alternate Ending, New Featurette, and Gag Reel

Burbank, CA – On February 3, Warner Home Video celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Being There--director Hal Ashby (Coming Home, Shampoo) and writer Jerzy Kosinski's tour-de-force satirical fable that takes on politics, celebrity and the media--with a 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.

Starring Peter Sellers (Pink Panther franchise), Melvyn Douglas, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Warden, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards® (for Sellers and Douglas) and won one for Douglas as Best Supporting Actor. Being There 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition will be available on both Blu-ray Hi-Def ($28.99 SRP) and Standard DVD ($19.96 SRP).

The Blu-ray Hi-Def version boasts exclusive special bonus content including 10 minutes of never-before-seen additional footage consisting of deleted scenes, a gag take, and an alternate ending. Both editions (BD and DVD), are restored and remastered from original elements, and include a revealing new retrospective featurette with Melvyn Douglas' actress-granddaughter Illeana Douglas.

"I'm very proud to have participated in this beautiful new DVD version of Being There," said Ms. Douglas. "My grandfather and Peter Sellers had a very warm and special relationship that started years before the movie and is definitely reflected throughout in their scenes together," she continued. In the featurette, Ms. Douglas, who visited the set as a young girl, speaks revealingly about the movie, her bond with her grandfather and his encouragement and support in her choice to become an actress. In fact, the elder Douglas bequeathed his Oscar® statuette to her.

Details + BONUS FEATURES:
Remastered Special Edition - DVD »
• Newly Remastered from Original Elements
• New Featurette: "Memories from Being There" with Illeana Douglas
• Theatrical Trailer

Remastered Special Edition - Blu-ray »
• Newly Remastered from Original Elements
• New Featurette: "Memories from Being There" with Illeana Douglas
• Two Recently Discovered Scenes
• Alternate Ending
• Gag Reel
• Theatrical Trailer

Note: the additional scenes, alternate ending, and gag reel are exclusive to the Blu-ray edition.

BEING THERE - Explore the film further:

» Blu-ray Special Edition Review by John J. Puccio »
EXCERPT: With all due respect to Clouseau fans, of which I am one, along with his roles in "Dr. Strangelove," his portrayal of Chance the gardener in "Being There" was probably the best thing he ever did. It's a pleasure to welcome this film back in a pair of 30th Anniversary editions, one on DVD and the one reviewed here on Blu-ray.

"Being There" is one of the shrewdest, funniest, and most touching sociopolitical satires in movie history. Sellers puts in what may be the most effectively understated performance he ever committed to the screen. He never raises or lowers his voice beyond a monotone (Sellers said he patterned his voice inflections after Stan Laurel), he never makes a gesture of hand, face, or body beyond the slightest increment of movement, yet he conveys a world of meaning with every nuance. He is able to make all of those around him draw their own conclusions about him, and in the film they are all wrong.

"Being There" is not a comedy that will thrill everyone; it isn't deep, dark, or sidesplitting, just placid and poignant. The movie's satire is perhaps more topical today than ever, and it remains a gentle reminder of Man's eternal gullibility, our susceptibility to be taken in by appearances. We believe what we want to believe. We make people into what we want them to be. The movie ends in one of the most remarkable scenes in cinema. There is apparently nothing Chance is incapable of doing. To quote the film, "Life is a state of mind."

» Theatrical Trailer »
(from YouTube's website)


Production Notes (from Wikipedia)
Being There is a 1979 film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted from the 1971 novel written by Jerzy Kosinski. The 4th film produced by Lorimar, the film stars Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard A. Dysart and Richard Basehart. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This was the last Peter Sellers film to be released while he was alive.

The screenplay was coauthored by Kosinski and the award winning screenwriter Robert C. Jones, winning 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.

It has been suggested that Kosinski named the character of Chance after a teacher of transcendental meditation he had met at the local TM Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, named Jerry Jarvis, who resembled the calm and simple manner of Chance Gardiner. The TM Center was located at the corner of Chauncy and Garden Streets. Given the phenomenological flavor of the film in which Chauncey invariably responds to people and phenomena as they present themselves, it is perhaps significant to note that the title 'Being There' is a direct translation of the term Dasein used by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the essential nature of human beings.

The small amount of original music in the film (i.e., written for the film) is by Johnny Mandel and primarily features two recurring piano themes. These are both based on (but not the same as) two "Gnossiennes" by Erik Satie (No. 4, which is a dark, somber composition, and No. 5 which is slightly jovial). The other major piece of music used is the Eumir Deodato jazz/funk arrangement of the opening fanfare from "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss, in the scene where Chance leaves the house and ventures out into the world for the first time. This composition is widely known for its use (the original Strauss orchestration) in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Confoundingly provocative. Wonderful comic moments. A rare and subtle bird that finds its tone and sticks with it. It has the appeal of an ingenious intellectual game."
-Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Synopsis:
Life is a state of mind. A story of chance.
After BEING THERE was published, author Jerzy Kosinski got a telegram from its lead character Chance the Gardner: "Available in my garden or outside of it." Kosinski dialed the accompanying telephone number and Peter Sellers answered. Sellers indeed got the part and gave an indelible performance (winning National Board of Review and Golden Globe Best Actor awards and an Academy Award® nomination) in this modern comedy classic.

Isolated all his life in a Washington, DC townhouse, Chance knows only what he's seen on T.V. Cast into the world, he stumbles into the inner circle of governmental power brokers (including Melvyn Douglas in his second Oscar®-winning role) eager for "sage wisdom." As Chance might say, you'll like to watch.

BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, he's fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. He's mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon he's meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where he's a natural.

Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.

Theatrical release: December 19, 1979. Director Hal Ashby's former producer, Jerome Hellman, plays the role of Gary Burns, a talk show host. The film was cited for Best Screenplay by BAFTA. Jerzy Kosinski actually performed experiments in schools with young children, trying to see if TV creates culture or is a reflection of it.

---

Please Note - More details:
Be sure to check out the full details under related releases.

For other releases:
DVD & Blu-ray release calendar »

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---