Sep 12th 
Being There**
(US/WG 1979)
Lorimar/North Star/CIP. 130m.

An innocent simpleton gardener whose main outside influence is television is thrown out into Washington once his master dies, and a misunderstanding society adopts him as a national philosopher.
Gentle and mostly sombre comic fable with some clumsy direction, and Sellers downplaying with an uneasy mixture of suppressed Goonishness and small traces of Stan Laurel.

Written by: Jerzy Kosinsky, from his novel.
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg.
Director: Hal Ashby.
Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, Ruth Attaway, Richard Basehart.
Photography: Caleb Deschanel.
Music: Johnny Mandel.