Being There

I went through a little Peter Sellers phase about five years ago, right after seeing The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. I gathered up the Pink Panther films, but I wanted to see some of his other work as well, so I watched The Party, re-watched Dr. Strangelove, and finally, I rented Being There.

Much of what I've read about Peter Sellers describes him as a kind of shell — a vessel where characters lived. Sellers himself led sort of a sad life riddled with personal issues and health problems, many of which were brought on by various drug problems. In many ways, Sellers was described (and portrayed by Geoffrey Rush) as sort of...blank. Nothing there. No personality.

However, as the credits to Hal Ashby's Being There roll, we're given a blooper reel — rare for cinema of the late 1970s. This is a rare glimpse of Sellers attempting to get through a take without laughing. His laughter is contagious. This guy was human after all.

Our sense of humor is a huge portion of our personality. What we consider funny or unfunny indicates much about ourselves and our world views. What makes us laugh is another matter. We can appreciate the comedy in something even if we don't laugh. To bust out laughing, sometimes repeatedly, gets at something distinctly human.

To understand what makes people laugh takes a serious understanding of people. Sellers may not have been the most normal person (no comedian is), but he had this uncanny ability to make people laugh.

How fitting that Ashby includes these clips of Sellers making himself laugh, too.