Bartleby (2001 film)

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Bartleby
DVD cover
Directed by	Jonathan Parker
Written by	Herman Melville Jonathan Parker Catherine DiNapoli
Based on	Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
Produced by	Debbie Brubaker Catherine DiNapoli
Starring	David Paymer Crispin Glover Glenne Headly Maury Chaykin Joe Piscopo
Cinematography	Wah Ho Chan
Edited by	Rick LeCompte
Music by	Seth Asarnow Jonathan Parker
Release date	March 10, 2001 (2001-3-10) (SXSW)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Bartleby is a 2001 American comedy-drama 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, but maintaining an element of surrealism.^[1][2]

While driving to work one day, the unnamed manager of a public records office (hereafter referred to as the Boss), sees a 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: Ernest, an overweight and neurotic klutz; Rocky, who dresses and acts like a stereotypical mobster; and Vivian, his verbose, flirtatious, and bluntly honest receptionist. The Boss decides to post a job opening for a fourth employee in order to help with an expected increase in workload, but the only person who applies for the job is the man from the overpass, the titular Bartleby.

Bartleby explains in his interview that he worked at a dead letter office for eight years until the office moved but otherwise gives vague answers to the Boss's questions. Bartleby's quiet and off-kilter demeanor unsettles the Boss, but with no other options, he hires him. Bartleby is initially a model employee and 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, responding with what becomes his answer to virtually every request: "I would prefer not to." To the staff's dismay and irritation, Bartleby refuses to do anything except his sole task of filing away documents and spends long periods of time staring at a vent above his desk that vibrates loudly. When the Boss brings a date to the office late one night, Bartleby walks in on them, leading the Boss to discover that he has begun living there.

The Boss makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby and learn about him, wondering what sort of life he must lead; he also realizes he and the staff have started using the word "prefer" in their vocabularies. Bartleby soon refuses to do any more filing, now doing nothing at all and claiming that he has "given up working", 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 has not left; tensions start to rise as one of the Boss's associates wonder why Bartleby is at the office but doesn't appear to do any work. Understanding the threat Bartleby poses to his reputation, but unable to evict him without proper cause, the Boss moves the office to another building after realizing that Bartleby's previous employers moved to get rid of him. Before he departs, the Boss gives Bartleby a letter of recommendation while a repairman removes a dead bird from the vent above Bartleby's desk.

A few days later, the new tenant of the Boss's old office and his former landlord both demand the Boss do something about Bartleby; though he was kicked out of the office, he still will not leave the building and is now sleeping in the hallway. The Boss insists that Bartleby is no longer his problem but relents under the pressure. Speaking to Bartleby again, the Boss tries again to reason with him, offering to help him find a job he would like, but Bartleby declines every suggestion, and after the Boss leaves, he is arrested and released onto the streets.

When the Boss learns of this, he goes searching for Bartleby and finds him weak and delirious from starvation in a homeless camp, having preferred not to eat anymore and wanting nothing to do with the Boss. To his own surprise, the Boss invites Bartleby to come live with him, but Bartleby refuses yet again. 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, forces the Boss to wait in a long line. By the time he returns with food, Bartleby has died. Finding his letter of recommendation in Bartleby's coat, the Boss bitterly realizes it is now a dead letter, stumbling away in despair and finding his way to the same overpass where he first saw Bartleby.

Sometime afterwards, the Boss has resigned from his job and written a memoir which includes his time with Bartleby. The publishing agent he pitches it to, however, finds the subject matter concerning Bartleby too depressing for her tastes and refuses to publish it. The Boss flies into a rage, demanding that Bartleby's story be told, and when the agent tells him to leave, he retorts "I would prefer not to!" Rattled by this, the agent simply tells him to stay there as she leaves. Realizing the impact Bartleby has had on his own life and finding his gaze drawn to a nearby vent that starts vibrating, the Boss shouts the phrase again and again as the film closes with a shot of several office buildings, all isolated on top of large hills like his old office.

• David Paymer as The Boss
• Crispin Glover as Bartleby
• Glenne Headly as Vivian
• Maury Chaykin as Ernest
• Joe Piscopo as Rocky
• Seymour Cassel as Frank Waxman
• Carrie Snodgress as Book Publisher
• Dick Martin as The Mayor

• Bartleby at IMDb
• Bartleby at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bartleby, the Scrivener at Project Gutenberg
• Bartelby, the Scrivener public domain audiobook at LibriVox