Being There/Funny

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • In Being There, scenes like Louise the maid's diatribe about Chance the gardener's sudden rise in social status and Ben Rand misinterpreting his comment about "the room upstairs" are crowd pleasers, but arguably the show-stopper comes near the end: Chance (Peter Sellers) is watching the original Thomas Crown Affair on TV, and has just reached its big kissing scene. As per his tendency to imitate what he sees on TV almost subconsciously, he immediately begins to imitate the actors' lip movements. Then Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), who desperately needs him, comes in; he grabs her and begins to furiously snog her, even turning themselves around to match the whirling camera in the film. (Bonus points for being a likely inspiration for a similar scene in E.T.!)

Back to Being There