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Being There: Difference between revisions

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'''This novella and its film adaptation include examples of:'''
* [[Adam and or Eve]]
* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]] and [[Informed Attractiveness]]: The former is inverted with Chance -- when you think of a combination of Cary Grant and early-'70s Ted Kennedy, a graying, overweight Peter Sellers is ''not'' who comes to mind. As a result, the latter is invoked when the senator's wife tells Eve that "He's very, very sexy!" (Thatthat said, there are Sellers fangirls who ''do'' find Chance extremely attractive.).
* [[Adaptation Expansion]] ''and'' [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: The film fleshes out many of the characters and there's a significant addition in Dr. Robert Allenby, but also removes extraneous material by combining the two maids into one, dropping the Russians' attempts to figure out Chance's identity as it only duplicates the FBI/CIA search, etc.
* [[Also Sprach Zarathustra]]: With the Deodato version, that is.
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* [[Big Fancy House]]: In the film, the Rand estate -- represented by the [[Real Life]] Biltmore Estate.
* [[Black Comedy]]: Death, socio-economic disparities between races (movie only), mental retardation, government spying, extramarital relationships...all treated seriously, and yet it's ''still'' funny.
* [[Brick Joke]]: The message to Raphael that Chance is told to deliver. {{spoiler|A brick joke ''twice over'' thanks to the [[Hilarious Outtakes]].}}
* [[The Caretaker]]: The Old Man and his maids were this to Chance until the Old Man's death. The Old Man was definitely overcontrollingover-controlling; the book says he warned Chance he would be institutionalized if he ever left the house. (Worse, as Roger Ebert notes in his Great Movies essay, "Perhaps he is his son.") The movie version suggests the black maid Louise was closer to Chance than anyone else he ever knew. Ironically, she completely resents his success as "Chauncey" because she knows what he really is; she chalks it up to his being white.
* [[Covert Pervert]]: Subverted ''hard''. Chance's "I like to watch" is misinterpreted by ''everyone'' that he's a voyeur. In reality, he just likes to watch television.
* [[Crystal Ball Scheduling]]: With the exceptions of a clip of the President and Chance's talk show appearance, every clip seen on a TV in the film -- and there are many, including ones seen in the background -- is from a real show/commercial. And most of them were airing, new or as reruns, around the time of the film's making and release. They comment on or underscore the situation at hand or just Chance's personality; others become something Chance adapts to his own situation.
* [[A Date with Rosie Palms]]: Eve takes Chance's comment that "he likes to watch" entirely the wrong way.
* [[Eiffel Tower Effect]]: The movie's set in Washington, D.C., but since the P.O.V. is confined to the townhouse until Chance leaves, ''and'' the townhouse is not in the nicest part of town, we don't see any landmarks until he's wandered far. (Upup to that point, we only get one hint as to the setting: a ''Washington Post'' ad on TV.).
* [[Equal Opportunity Evil]]: Averted with an all-black street gang.
* [[Everything Is Racist]]: Louise assumes Chance's success is due to the fact that he's white.
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* [[Man Child]]: As Louise the maid puts it to Chance in the film, "You're always gonna be a little boy, ain't ya?"
* [[May-December Romance]]: Eve and Ben.
* [[Meaningful Funeral]]: {{spoiler|Ben's...but in an unusual way, in part because it is ''not'' meaningful to Chance.}}
* [[Messianic Archetype]]: Subverted with Chance, who comes across as this but only because he's constantly misunderstood. {{spoiler|And then there's a Double Subversion in the final shot}}...]]
* [[Meta Casting]]: Peter Sellers took this trope into his own hands when he decided he was meant to play Chance -- Sellers had often stated that he had no real personality beyond his characters; now he could play someone who has no real personality beyond other people's perceptions.
* [[Mistaken for Profound]]: Chance's "economic statements" are misinterpreted as deep metaphors.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The Old Man died in his sleep and when Chance goes up to see the body, it's still in his bed. Chance sits down on the foot of the bed, turns on the TV, and {{spoiler|the melancholy background music is replaced with a cheery commercial jingle for mattresses; the ad comes complete with the image of a woman sleeping on a bed}}.
* [[Mysterious Past]]: Played straight and parodied. The novel establishes that Chance doesn't know who his father is; he was told his mother died in childbirth. Parodied in that the CIA, FBI, and so on are trying to track down "Chauncey Gardiner's" background, but can't come up with anything because there is no birth certificate, etc. for Gardiner to be tracked with. [[Fridge Brilliance|Having been isolated so completely from the world, Chance likely doesn't have any of these things anyway!]]
* [[No Ending]]: Famously so. "[[Arc Words|Life is a state of mind]]".
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* [[Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic]]: Sellers essentially used this trope in creating Chance's manner of speaking; it would ''have'' to be completely devoid of realistic diction/inflection because his language development would have been primarily based on how people on TV speak...
* [[Roger Ebert Great Movies List]]
* [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche]]: Definitely a satire. (Oneone parodied by ''[[Mad Magazine]]''.).
* [[Small Secluded World]]: The Old Man's townhouse is this for Chance; television provides most of his knowledge of the world beyond it.
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Thanks to [[Crystal Ball Scheduling]], this pops up a few times; for instance, you may never listen to {{spoiler|Cheech and Chong's "Basketball Jones"}} quite the same way again without thinking of Chance and Eve first arriving at the Rand estate.
* [[Spock Speak]]: Chance's manner of speaking, especially his quiet inflection, invokes this trope.
* [[Steven Ulysses Perhero]]: Reversed in Chance's case!
* [[Twist Ending]]: Only in the film version. In the final shot {{spoiler|Chance wanders out to a lake, and it's revealed he can Walk On Water. ''He's surprised too.''}} This also qualifies as:
** [[Achievements in Ignorance]]: One interpretation.
** [[Banned in China]]: Because it was potentially offensive to {{spoiler|Christians}}, the original South African cut dropped this scene.
** [[Gainax Ending]]
** [[Magic Realism]]
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