Bartleby

Bartleby (1976)
of Maurice RONET

The Eye of the Witness TV

Original Title :
Audio : French
Subtitles: Without
Duration : 96 mins
Format : DVD
Area : B

METALUNA EXCLUSIVE

It's back to school on The Eye of the Witness. This year we have a number of surprises in store for you, which we will come back to over the months. Some are already in the box, others in the pipeline. On the video side, the “Ciné-Club TV” collection will be expanded with new rare and tasty television titles.

Let's start with Bartleby, directed by Maurice Ronet, based on the short story by Herman Melville published in 1853 (in France: 1976 then regularly republished or collected with other short texts). There was a time when French television knew how to take risks by producing for the home screen classics of world literature that were often deemed unsuitable – like Bartleby. It suffices to be convinced of this to take up the words of Gilles Deleuze on the language specific to Bartleby and on the question of translation – we know what is involved in the famous “I would prefer not to”. Maurice Ronet's film, which is the third adaptation of the short story, in addition to being a transcription to the letter, also avoiding tripping over the carpet of the "undecidable" formula of the scribe Bartleby, reserves great moments of cinema as well as performances by exemplary actors.

The DVD bonus offers, in addition to the presentation of the film by Roland-Jean Charna, a long fascinating documentary where all the speakers enlighten us both from the point of view of Melville and that of the screenwriters, Maurice Ronet included.

Synopsis
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