Being There, Hal Ashby (U.S., 1979)

In the eighties, “I like to watch” became the watchword of an accumulating couch culture. The phrase was uttered first by Chance (Peter Sellers), a simple-minded gardener who has learned everything from the glowing television tube. When misfortune sets him on the streets of Washington, D.C., he is helpless until inadvertently rescued by Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), wife of a financial tycoon, played by Melvyn Douglas. Chance is reinvented as Chauncey Gardiner by his influential hosts and his simplistic views are mistaken for wisdom by politicians starved for frank malarkey. As if anticipating the Reagan era, Hal Ashby’s darkly cautionary comedy is more a punch than a punchline.

—Steve Seid

• Written by Jerzy Kosinski, based on his novel. Photographed by Caleb Deschanel. With Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden. (130 mins, Color, 35mm, From Warner Bros.)