FilmStubs: Being There (1979)
A simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics. (PG, 130 min.)
Showtimes
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
7:00 PM
The FilmStubs series is Free and made possible by a grant from Friends of the Library. Stick around for a discussion following the screenings. For more Springfield-Greene County Library events click here.
To accommodate seating capacity, ticket holders must check in no later than 5 minutes past the scheduled showtime. After this time, unclaimed reserved seats will be released to wait listed guests.
Peter Sellers triumphs in his classic performance as an illiterate gardener who is hilariously catapulted into the fast lane of political power. Shirley MacLaine and Academy Award winner Melvyn Douglas co-star.
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
After a run-in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of a woman (MacLaine) and her husband Ben (Douglas), an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider. [Warner Bros]
Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas
Director: Hal Ashby
Genre: Comedy, Drama
"Here is a comedy that valiantly defies both gravity and the latest Hollywood fashion."
— Frank Rich, TIME Magazine
"Hal Ashby directs Being There at an unruffled, elegant pace, the better to let Mr. Sellers's double-edged mannerisms make their full impression upon the audience."
— Janet Maslin, New York Times
"Satire is a threatened species in American film, and when it does occur, it's usually broad and slapstick, as in the Mel Brooks films. Being There, directed by Hal Ashby, is a rare and subtle bird that finds its tone and stays with it."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"Sellers has never been better and he embellishes the detached, childlike innocence of this character with perfect style and timing. It's a deceptively simple performance, but it is essentially the core and substance of the film."
— Ron Pennington, Hollywood Reporter
"A brutal look at America and Americans that gently lifts up the mirror image that television gives us of ourselves, smashes it on the marble floors of our political institutions and holds a chunk of jagged glass to our throats. And then makes us laugh."
— Michael Blowen, Boston Globe
Support for the Moxie
Become A Member
