Looking round for French Film adaptations of "big name" writers I found out that a DVD seller had recently tracked down a take on Herman Melville.Originally expecting the discovery to be (another) adaptation of Melville's most famous work,I was plenty surprised to find that they had tracked down a movie based on one of Melville's most overlooked short stories,which led to me getting ready to meet Bartleby.
The plot:
Needing an extra worker to keep the record books of the company all in order, businessman L'huissier hires Bartleby as a new recruit. Impressed by Bartleby's dedicated attention to the slightest detail, L'huissier finds Bartleby to never let his guard down in order to truly bond with the team. Trying to bring him in, L'huissier soon discovers that work is the only thing in Bartleby's life.
View on the film:
Spending time with the guys in the office,co-writer/(along with Jacques Quoirez & Yvan Bostel) director Maurice Ronet and cinematographer Claude Robin predict the rise "office culture",placing L'huissier and Bartleby in a clamped office where the conversations and the camera are unable to find any elbow room,with false walls round the office blocking out any hope of an outside work life for the workers. Along with the sly comment on office politics,Ronet brings the stark relationship between L'huissier and Bartleby with startling close- ups zoning in on the shattered hope cast across their faces.
Sailing in from Herman Melville's short story,the screenplay by Quoirez/Bostel and Ronet chairs the office with bitter laughs,where any attempt to bring Bartleby (played by a haunting Maxence Mailfort) into the gang leads to the distance being wider than ever. Sending Bartleby into free-fall,the writers glaze the title in a haunting melancholy mood,drawn from each heart-wrenching attempt the empathetic L'huissier (played by the superb Michael Lonsdale)takes to find out what is going on behind Bartleby's eyes, causing Bartleby to sink deeper into his ghostly self, as this Melville adaption glides over the horizon.
The plot:
Needing an extra worker to keep the record books of the company all in order, businessman L'huissier hires Bartleby as a new recruit. Impressed by Bartleby's dedicated attention to the slightest detail, L'huissier finds Bartleby to never let his guard down in order to truly bond with the team. Trying to bring him in, L'huissier soon discovers that work is the only thing in Bartleby's life.
View on the film:
Spending time with the guys in the office,co-writer/(along with Jacques Quoirez & Yvan Bostel) director Maurice Ronet and cinematographer Claude Robin predict the rise "office culture",placing L'huissier and Bartleby in a clamped office where the conversations and the camera are unable to find any elbow room,with false walls round the office blocking out any hope of an outside work life for the workers. Along with the sly comment on office politics,Ronet brings the stark relationship between L'huissier and Bartleby with startling close- ups zoning in on the shattered hope cast across their faces.
Sailing in from Herman Melville's short story,the screenplay by Quoirez/Bostel and Ronet chairs the office with bitter laughs,where any attempt to bring Bartleby (played by a haunting Maxence Mailfort) into the gang leads to the distance being wider than ever. Sending Bartleby into free-fall,the writers glaze the title in a haunting melancholy mood,drawn from each heart-wrenching attempt the empathetic L'huissier (played by the superb Michael Lonsdale)takes to find out what is going on behind Bartleby's eyes, causing Bartleby to sink deeper into his ghostly self, as this Melville adaption glides over the horizon.