Bartleby (1976) watch online HD

Maurice Ronet was one of the most talented actors of the late fifties,sixties and seventies and his premature demise was a major loss for the French cinema.His best part,in a brilliant career,might well be that of " Le Feu Follet" from Drieu De La Rochelle,an extremely pessimistic work which tells the last hours of a man about to commit suicide.

"Bartleby" came aside as a shock in the seventies;it was virtually ignored,being too "different" to gain the audience's favor,but the critics were enthused and in 2015,it has a strong cult among cine-buffs. It's Ronet's third effort ,after a first film and a short,both very obscure and it is the movie the actor threatened to make after a work such as Malle 's "Feu Follet" ."Bartleby ",based on a Herman Melville's short story ,appears like a suicide at a slower pace:the hero has always been an outcast,looking for a place he can call his own,or too disgusted by the nine to five routine the clerks "enjoy" in their office to feel like being part of them;the most important moment in the close-up on Bartleby's eyes ;his look does not accuse,judge or rebels against the raw deal he's got.He simply looks at us,our "happiness" ,our "normality".

Apart from Lonsdale ,the actors are cast against type :Biraud and Deschamps were ,by and large,used in (sometimes coarse) comedies;Dominique Zardi was given numerous very small parts in many a Claude Chabrol movie ;as for Maxence Mailfort (Bartleby) ,he is relatively obscure,and it gives more strength to his character;all are masterfully directed and give their best.

Ronet would continue his work on the American literature with a series of Poe's short stories for TV (notably a very original "gold-bug").

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This French film adaptation is, surprisingly, the best that I have seen. Maxence Mailfort as Bartleby brings an arresting pathos to his interpretation unlike the stolid and vacuous portrayals I have seen. Film veteran Michael Lonsdale as the Employer matches him in emotional resonance and artistry, imbuing the texture of his relationship to Bartleby with an originality of empathetic perplexity that creates a bond between the two that is exquisitely moving. It is quite unlike any other portrayal I have seen of this character, even Paul Scofield's in one of the other attempts to bring the story to the screen. Never before have I experienced such a tender, yes I use that word, realization of this work. The trappings of stock bewilderment I have characteristically seen actors recreating the Employer resort to are not here in any archetypal fashion. I have come to expect such an interpretation because every other depiction I have ever watched utilizes it, but never really transcends it. There is one point at the end of the famous scene on the stairs where the camera slowly approaches Bartleby to mid close-up, and the moment coalesces into an articulation of sadness so stunning that I caught my breath. It was the culmination of sympathetic wonder and sensitivity that Maxence Mailfort brought to his portrayal. I have a copy of this film and I return to it on occasion to marvel at the freshness of both performances, definitely not the usual reaction I have had to any other film adaptation of the story. The film needs no subtitles or dubbing, and I am so glad that my copy has none. I recommend watching it solely in French even if you do not speak the language. As a non-speaker, I found it eminently surpassing any other film version of Melville's story by a mile. Highly recommended. Ironic perhaps that the best adaptation, at least to me, is in French. (Sort of like the best feature film of America's history of slavery, 12 Years a Slave, was brought to the screen not by Americans but by the British.)

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.