Hal Ashby: BEING THERE (1979), 130 Min
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November 1, 2016 (XXXIII: 10) Hal Ashby: BEING THERE (1979), 130 min. (The online version of this handout has color images and hot url links.) Academy Awards Best Actor in a Supporting Role Melvyn Douglas National Film Registry Directed by Hal Ashby Written by Jerzy Kosinski (novel & screenplay), Robert C. Jones (uncredited) Produced by Andrew Braunsberg, Charles Mulvehill, Jack Schwartzman, Merv Adelson Music Johnny Mandel Cinematography Caleb Deschanel Film Editing Don Zimmerman Casting Lynn Stalmaster Production Design Michael D. Haller Art Direction James L. Schoppe Cast Peter Sellers…Chance The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966), Shirley MacLaine…Eve Rand The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and even earned himself a Melvyn Douglas…Benjamin Rand Best Editing Oscar for 1967’s In The Heat of The Night. Itching Jack Warden…President 'Bobby' to become a director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy Richard Dysart…Dr. Robert Allenby to work on called The Landlord (1970) and it became Ashby's Richard Basehart…Vladimir Skrapinov first directorial film. From there he delivered a series of well- Ruth Attaway…Louise acted, intelligent human scaled dramas that included The Last David Clennon…Thomas Franklin Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), Fran Brill…Sally Hayes Coming Home (1978) and Being There (1979). Ashby was Denise DuBarry…Johanna Franklin always a maverick and a contrary person and success proved difficult for Ashby to handle. He became unreliable due to his Hal Ashby (b. September 2, 1929 in Ogden, Utah –d. December dependence on drugs and a reclusive lifestyle. He actually 27, 1988, age 59, in Malibu, California) was the fourth and collapsed while making the Rolling Stone concert film Let's youngest child in a Mormon household. After a rough childhood Spend the Night Together (1982) in Arizona. Although he that included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, his recovered, he was never the same after that. He began taking too dropping out of high school, getting married and divorced all much time in post production on his films and actually had a before he was 19, he decided to leave Utah for California. A couple of his later projects taken away from him to be edited by Californian employment office found him a printing press job at others. He tried to straighten himself out, but in the 1980s, he Universal Studios. Within a few years, he was an assistant film was considered by many to be unemployable. Just when he felt editor at various other studios. One of his pals while at MGM he was turning a corner in his life, he developed cancer that was a young messenger named Jack Nicholson. He moved up to spread to his liver and colon. He died on December 27, 1988. being a full-fledged editor on The Loved One (1965) and started Because he did not have a set visual style, many mistake this for editing the films of director Norman Jewison. Ashby edited five no style at all. Laid-back, doobie-inclined, scruffy and shooting of Jewison’s finest films incuding The Cincinnati Kid (1965), from the hip mavericks: while many of his peers went on to Ashby—BEING THERE—2 much greater success in the 1970s — Steven Spielberg, Warren novel with which Americans would be presumably unfamiliar. Beatty, Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Hopper, George Lucas, The Voice article also alleged that Kosinski relied upon editors etc. — perhaps no one director typfies the groovy, uber-chill to make exhaustive corrections and rewrites without giving Easy Riders and Raging Bulls generation of filmmakers more them credit. Following this scandal, many friends supported than Hal Ashby. He also directed 10 different actors in Oscar- Kosinski, but his reputation was irrevocably damaged. On May nominated performances: Lee Grant, Jack Nicholson, Randy 3, 1991, Kosinski wrote a note that said: "I am going to put Quaid, Jack Warden, Jon Voight, Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern, myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call the time Penelope Milford, Melvyn Douglas and Peter Sellers. Grant, Eternity." With a fatal dose of barbiturates and his usual rum- Fonda, Voight and Douglas won Oscars for their performances and-Coke, he placed a plastic bag over his head and taped it shut in one of his movies. around his neck, a method of suicide suggested by the Hemlock Society. He was found dead in the bathtub of his New York apartment. Caleb Deschanel (b. September 21, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a cinematographer and director, known for The Patriot (2000), National Treasure (2004) and Jack Reacher (2012). To a younger audience, Deschanel might be known as the father to his two famous actress daughters, Zooey and Emily. He got a chance at directing Emily for a 2007 episode of her hit show, Bones. ). He’s been nominated for 5 Oscars for Passion of the Christ (2004), The Patriot (2000), Fly Away Home (1996), The Natural (1984), and The Right Stuff (1983), but never won. He has over 30 cinematographer or DP credits in addition to the above including Unforgettable (2017, post- production), Werk Ohne Autor (2017, post-production), Rules Don't Apply (2016, completed), Winter's Tale (2014), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), Dream House (2011), Killer Joe (2011), My Sister's Keeper (2009), Killshot (2008), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Ask the Dust (2006), The Jerzy Kosinski (b. June 14, 1933 in Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland—d. Timeline (2003), The Hunted (2003), Anna and the King (1999), May 3, 1991, age 57, in New York City, New York) was a Message in a Bottle (1999), Hope Floats (1998), Fly Away writer and actor, known for Being There (1979), Lodz Ghetto Home (1996), It Could Happen to You (1994), The Slugger's (1988) and Reds (1981). Born in Poland, Kosinski moved to Wife (1985), Let's Spend the Night Together (1982, New York in 1957, and later become a U.S. citizen. As a Documentary), Being There (1979), The Black Stallion (1979), Guggenheim Fellow, he studied at the Center for Advanced More American Graffiti (1979), Trains (1976, Documentary Studies at Wesleyan University. Later he taught American prose short), The Hello Machine (1974, Short), Lanton Mills (1969, at Princeton and Yale. He served two terms as President of the Short) and Rodeo (1969, Documentary short). American Center of PEN, the international association of writers and editors. A best-selling novelist, he was also a prolific Peter Sellers (b. September 8, 1925 in Southsea, Hampshire, photographer whose work was exhibited in Poland and the England –d. July 24, 1980, age 54, in London, England) Often States. He once conducted an experiment in the difficulties new credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was writers went through to get published: eight years after it won born to a well-off English acting family in 1925. His mother and the National Book Award, he allowed another writer to change father worked in an acting company run by his grandmother. As the title of his novel "Steps" and market it as his own. It was a child, Sellers was spoiled, as his parents' first child had died at rejected by 13 agents and 14 publishers, including the one that birth. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served during had originally bought it. On August 8, 1969, he was scheduled World War II. After getting out of the service, he burst into to fly from Paris to Los Angeles to join some friends for dinner prominence as the voices of numerous favorites on the BBC at the Roman Polanski-Sharon Tate home in Hollywood. radio program "The Goon Show" (1951-1960), and then making Because his luggage had accidentally been sent to New York, his debut in films in Penny Points to Paradise (1951) and Down the delays caused him to miss the party. His dear friend Voytek Among the Z Men (1952), before making it big as one of the Frykowski, Sharon Tate and the rest of the guests were criminals in The Ladykillers (1955). These small but showy slaughtered that evening by the Manson Family. Kosinski later roles continued throughout the 1950s, but he got his first big addressed the twist of fate in the novel entitled "Blind Date". break playing the dogmatic union man, Fred Kite, in I'm All For several decades, Kosinski was famous as a wit, a great Right Jack (1959). The film's success led to starring vehicles raconteur, and a media celebrity. His first three novels were big into the 1960s that showed off his extreme comic ability to its hits. However, in June 22, 1982, "Jerzy Kosinski's Tainted fullest. In 1962, Sellers was cast in the role of Clare Quilty in Words," an article by Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith the Stanley Kubrick version of the film Lolita (1962) in which in The Village Voice, accused Jerzy Kosinski of plagiarism and his performance as a mentally unbalanced TV writer with dishonesty. 'Being There', which was adapted as a successful multiple personalities landed him another part in Kubrick's Dr. film, was shown to have been plagiarized from an earlier Polish Strangelove (1964) in which he played three roles which Ashby—BEING THERE—3 showed off his comic talent in play-acting in three different Best Actress Oscar for Terms of Endearment (1983). After a accents; British, American, and German. He earned an Oscar five-year hiatus, she made Madame Sousatzka (1988), a critical nomination for The Pink Panther (1963), in which he played his and financial hit that took top prize at the Venice Film Festival.