“I’d rather stay where I am.” The annotation for the film quite clearly and succinctly outlines the plot of the picture, so we omit this part.
To begin with, this is an amazing and difficult to understand dramatic work. It was directed by Maurice Ronet, a star of French cinema, who played in such well-known films as “Pool”, “The Fading Light”, “Elevator on the scaffold”.
It would seem that the story told to Ron in the “Brattleby” from the director’s chair does not fit well with his cinematic images of the hero-lover, cynic, existential martyr, whose problems arise mainly from saturation with the secular lifestyle.
At the same time, closer to the final, the highlight of the acting role of Maurice Ronet on his directorial style is still felt, yes, some parallels can be drawn here, but about this a little later.
After watching most of the film, one gets the impression that this is not just a story about several harsh working days of a little man Bartleby in a tattered French office of the sample of the 70s.
The conflict here goes far beyond a contradictory relationship with the boss and unfriendly fellow crooks.
Bartleby's appearance is intriguing from the first seconds. Who is this man who came from nowhere? Even his boss does not know anything about him, but the willingness of this restrained gentleman to work on the given terms bribes.
He looks like a decent guy. Bartleby is neat, fit and aristocratically pale. But this agonizing shine in his closely planted eyes gives his whole appearance a tragic sound. These eyes seem to speak of things that cannot be expressed in words, and apparently for this reason only polite but dry phrases break from his lips: "Good day, Monsieur," "Thank you, Monsieur," "Good," but then most often "I would prefer not ..." - a phrase memorized as a prayer, and concealing a slightly different meaning than that heard by others.
The solemn, mysterious figure of Bartleby, full of dignity, reveals the depth of his character not immediately.
His actions and reactions on the verge of farce and absurdity are initially confusing, even infuriating. Involuntarily, you become in solidarity with those three clerks who disliked the “excited” novice.
In the course of the action, you assume that this quiet person is planning a bad thing, that the simpleton-chief is about to pay for his patience and kindness. But then Bartleby's behavior becomes even more bizarre and intriguing. Indignation is replaced by sympathy and a desire to understand this hero, to justify him.
However, the logic of his actions is not disclosed, moreover, everything indicates its absence. The only thing that remains is to grope for that very existential vacuum, through the futility of searching for one’s place in life.
So, Bartleby’s worldview becomes closer and more understandable.
Without literally talking about the acute social problems of modern European society, without sinning with a long, tedious philosophizing about the meaning of human existence, Monet in a few strokes shows the process of breaking the personality in circumstances of stagnation, everyday life, routine, when any movement is only an imitation of life, an attempt to fill the void with something resembling an action, an act of being, the ghost of freedom.
Bartleby is mentally and spiritually outside, in a kind of prostration from which he cannot escape, while his body, tired of trying to live, is so heavy that another effort to move to another place, to another circumstance, is no longer possible. "I prefer to stay where I am" is a ridiculous decision, contrary to all social norms, rules and laws except the laws of physics. But surprisingly, the more Bartleby repeats this, the less wild and egregious this intention seems.
But what he ended up with was irreversible. And the boss has nothing to blame. He did everything he could, although some would argue, and what Bartleby himself thinks is another great mystery.
Returning to the personality of the director himself, I assume that Maurice Ronet, who tried on many guises-variations of a person alienated, cut off from life and tired of struggling, wanted to offer his own version of the alter ego.
Whatever it was, he created an expressive, distinctive image that really excites and gives room for many interpretations of the few thoughts and actions of Bartleby that we saw in this film.