Quartet (1981 film)

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This article is about the 1981 film. For the 1948 British anthology film, see Quartet (1948 film). For the 2012 film, see Quartet (2012 film).

Quartet
Quartet (1981 film).png
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Ivory
Written byRuth Prawer Jhabvala (based on the novel by Jean Rhys)
Produced byIsmail Merchant
StarringMaggie Smith
Alan Bates
Isabelle Adjani
Anthony Higgins
CinematographyPierre Lhomme
Edited byHumphrey Dixon
Music byRichard Robbins
Distributed by20th Century Fox (UK)
Gaumont (France)
Release date
17 May 1981 (Cannes Film Festival)
July 1981 (UK)
Running time
101 min
CountriesFrance
United Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish, French

Quartet is a 1981 Merchant Ivory film starring Maggie Smith, Isabelle Adjani, Anthony Higgins and Alan Bates, set in 1927 Paris. It premiered at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, and was an entry for the Sélection Officielle (Official Selection). It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jean Rhys.

Plot[]

The beautiful Marya "Mado" Zelli (Isabelle Adjani) is living with her husband Stephan (Anthony Higgins), a Polish art dealer, in 1927 Paris. When he is convicted of selling stolen artwork, and imprisoned for one year, Marya is left penniless, with no means to support herself. At Stephan's urging, she moves into the apartment of some acquaintances, H.J. Heidler (Alan Bates), a wealthy English art dealer, and his wife Lois (Maggie Smith), a painter. H.J. has a history of inviting vulnerable young women to move into the "spare room" only to seduce them. Lois permits this arrangement because she wants to keep H.J. from leaving her.

Marya becomes involved in the decadent Parisien lifestyle of the Heidlers and their group of fellow expatriates. Although she initially resists H.J.'s advances, Mado eventually begins an affair with him. The strain of living with the Heidlers begins to manifest itself; Marya becomes desperate to leave, and begs Lois to loan her money so she can get away. Lois, although extremely unhappy with the situation, is reluctant to interfere at the risk of alienating H.J. Her behavior towards Marya is increasingly passive-aggressive and insulting. During a hunting excursion to the countryside, Marya angrily confronts the pair, causing Lois to break down in anguish.

After this H.J. arranges for Marya to live in a hotel, where he visits her less and less for sexual trysts. She grows lonely and depressed, contemplating suicide. During a tea party at the Heidlers', Lois casually reveals that H.J.'s previous mistress drowned herself in despair. When things are at their worst, Stephan is released from prison and must leave France immediately. Heidler threatens to break with her entirely if she returns to her husband, and although Marya has longed to be re-united with Stephan, she is unable to choose between the two. Stephan realizes the truth, and the film ends with him abandoning Marya to an uncertain future.

Cast[]

Release[]

The film was released by the Cohen Media Group on DVD and Blu-ray in 2019.[1] Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times said that "Whether the arc of Marya's fate feels overly engineered to you or not, Quartet retains its power to unsettle in its accumulation of cuts and bruises, the rare Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala effort that mines a glamorized past not for nuanced dignity but for a kind of elegant, honest sordidness."[2]

Reception[]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, which sampled 7 reviews and calculated a weighted average of 62 out of 100, Quartet received "generally favorable reviews".[3] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which categorizes reviews only as positive or negative, 44 percent of 16 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.00/10.[4]

Variety wrote: "Director James Ivory takes his usual aloofly observant distance and the film's love triangle loses some drastic impetus."[5]

Awards[]

References[]

  1. ^ Johans, Jen (9 November 2019). "Film Intuition: Review Database". Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  2. ^ Abele, Robert (16 May 2019). "Review: 'Quartet' retains its elegant, honest sordidness 38 years later". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Quartet". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Quartet". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  5. ^ Variety Staff (1 January 1981). "Quartet". Variety.
  6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Quartet". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 3 June 2009.

External links[]

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