Bartleby (2001 film)

Bartleby
Directed by Jonathan Parker
Produced by Debbie Brubaker
Catherine DiNapoli
Written by Herman Melville
Jonathan Parker
Catherine DiNapoli
Based on Bartleby, the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
Starring David Paymer
Crispin Glover
Glenne Headly
Maury Chaykin
Joe Piscopo
Music by Seth Asarnow
Jonathan Parker
Cinematography Wah Ho Chan
Edited by Rick LeCompte
Release date
  • March 10, 2001 (2001-03-10) (South by Southwest Film Festival)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Bartleby is a 2001 American comedy film adaptation of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener". The film was directed by Jonathan Parker, and stars Crispin Glover as Bartleby, and David Paymer as his boss. The film diverges from Melville's story, setting it in a modern office and adding sitcom-style humor, with an element of surrealism.[1][2]

Plot

The film opens with a brief summary of Herman Melville's life; his popularity waning after he wrote "Moby Dick" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener", Melville was unable to support himself by writing and took a job as a clerk at the New York Custom House. By the time Melville died at the age of 72, hardly anyone had heard of him.

While on his way to work one day, the film's narrator, the unnamed head of a public records office (hereafter referred to as the Boss), sees a forlorn-looking man standing on an overpass. The Boss's office is in a building on top of a large hill, completely inaccessible by foot, and he employs three people: the neurotic and clumsy Ernest; Rocky, who looks and acts like a stereotypical gangster; and Vivian, an eccentric, flirtatious receptionist with a large vocabulary. The Boss decides to advertise for a fourth employee, but the only person who applies for the job is the man from the overpass, the titular Bartleby. Bartleby gives vague answers to the Boss's questions during the interview, but does explain that he worked at a dead letter office for eight years until the office moved. Bartleby's off-kilter attitude unsettles the Boss, but with no other options, he hires Bartleby.

Bartleby initially proves to be a model employee and a boon to the office, getting a week's worth of work done in only a few days, but when asked to help verify important documents, Bartleby refuses to do so, responding with what becomes his answer to every request and one of his only lines for the rest of the film: "I would prefer not to." To the Boss's dismay and irritation of the other employees, Bartleby refuses to do anything the Boss asks of him, performing his sole task of filing away documents and spending long periods of time staring at a vibrating vent above his desk. When the Boss brings a date to the office late one night to have sex with her, Bartleby walks in on them, leading the Boss to discover that he has started living there.

The Boss makes an attempt to reason with Bartleby and to learn something about him; he also realizes he and the other employees have started using the word "prefer" in their vocabulary. Bartleby soon refuses to do any more filing, now doing nothing at all and claiming that he's "given up", so the Boss fires Bartleby and gives him until Friday night to leave the office. When the Boss returns on Monday morning, he finds that Bartleby hasn't left, and indeed hasn't even touched the paycheck the Boss has given him. Tensions start to rise as the others wonder why Bartleby is still at the office. Realizing the threat to his reputation but emotionally unable to evict Bartleby, the Boss moves the office to another building. Before he leaves, he gives Bartleby a letter of recommendation, while a repairman removes a dead bird from the vent above Bartleby's desk, fixing the vibration.

However, the new tenants soon come to ask the Boss for help getting rid of Bartleby, who still has not left and now sits on the stairs all day and sleeps in the lobby at night. The Boss insists that Bartleby is no longer his problem, but relents under the pressure. Speaking to Bartleby again, the Boss offers to help him find a job he would like, but Bartleby refuses to budge. After the Boss leaves, Bartleby is arrested by the police and released onto the streets after a night in jail.

When the Boss learns of this, he goes searching for Bartleby and finds him at a homeless camp; to his own surprise, the Boss invites Bartleby to come live with him, but Bartleby declines the offer. The Boss rushes to a nearby soup kitchen and tries to convince a cook to make sure Bartleby gets fed, but the cook, unsympathetic to Bartleby's plight, refuses to help and forces the Boss to wait in a long line. By the time he returns with food, Bartleby has died from starvation, having preferred not to eat apparently since the Boss moved the office. Finding his letter of recommendation in Bartleby's coat, the Boss realizes it's a dead letter now, and gives the resigned and painful sigh, "Ah, Bartleby. Ah, humanity.", sinking into a depression and finding his way to the overpass from the beginning of the film.

A small subplot deals with Vivian becoming close to the Boss's benefactor, City Manager Frank Waxman. Before anything can come of their relationship, however, he catches her, Rocky, and Ernest making fun of Bartleby. Believing Bartleby to have some sort of mental disorder, Waxman takes the matter to the Mayor, and the Boss apparently becomes involved in a scandal.

Deeply affected by Bartleby's death, the Boss resigns from his job and writes a memoir about his time with Bartleby, but the publishing agent he shows it to refuses to publish it, finding the subject matter too depressing. The Boss flies into a rage, demanding that Bartleby's story be told, and when the agent tells him to leave, the Boss responds "I would prefer not to!" Rattled by this, the agent leaves. Finally realizing the impact Bartleby has had on his own life, the Boss repeats the phrase again and again as the film closes with a shot of several office buildings, all isolated on top of large hills like the Boss's old office.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ review at Qwipster.net
  2. ↑ review Archived November 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. by Christopher Null


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