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The free film series "The Screening Room: Classics, Crowd-Pleasers, Cult Favorites and Neglected Gems" concludes its March movie lineup with a salute to the enduring screen artistry of the late British comedian and character actor Peter Sellers.

"The Screening Room" will present a special “Oscar Champions” showing of director Hal Ashby’s 1979 screen adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s 1971 novel BEING THERE at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, 350 N. Wood Ave., downtown Florence.

BEING THERE offers Sellers in his second and final Oscar-nominated movie performance as Chance, a simple gardener who has never left a palatial Washington, D.C., estate until the day his employer dies and he is suddenly left alone and homeless.

Venturing out into the outside world for the first time in his life, the middle-aged Chance finds that his simple, straightforward, television-informed utterances are mistaken for wisdom and profundity by political leaders and the general public.

In addition to an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor, Sellers won the Golden Globe Award for his sensitive and understated performance. His BEING THERE co-stars include Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, Richard Basehart and Melvyn Douglas, who earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

"The Screening Room" is sponsored by the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library and Pillar of Fire. The series is organized and hosted by film historian and Pillar of Fire founder Terry Pace, who teaches English at UNA.

All screenings are free and open to the public. For details, call the library at (256) 764-6564 or Pillar of Fire at (256) 366-4512, or e-mail pillaroffire@bellsouth.net.

“As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.” – Chauncey “Chance” Gardener (Peter Sellers) in Hal Ashby’s BEING THERE (1979)

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Here's the original theatrical trailer for director Hal Ashby's BEING THERE (1979), starring the incomparable Peter Sellers in his second and final Academy Award-nominated performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPQ9gww_qc

Based on the 1971 Jerzy Kosinski novel, BEING THERE also stars Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Dysart, jack Warden and Richard Basehart.

Join us at 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday, March 31) in "The Screening Room" at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, 350 N. Wood Ave., Florence, Alabama. Admission is free.

"As long as the roots are not severed, all is well -- and all will be well -- in the garden." -- Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers) in Hal Ashby's BEING THERE (1979)

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Peter Sellers received a Golden Globe Award and his second and final Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his unforgettable role as Chance the Gardener (a.k.a. Chauncey Gardener) in BEING THERE (1979), the cult-movie favorite directed by Hal Ashby (SHAMPOO, COMING HOME) and based on the 1971 novel by Jerzy Kosinski.

THE SCREENING ROOM will show this timeless, quirky, touching and thought-provoking comedy-drama at 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday, March 31) at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, 350 N. Wood Ave., Florence, Alabama. Admission is free.

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