''Quartet'' is a 1981 Merchant Ivory film starring

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...

Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for ''Possession'' (1981), ''O ...

, Anthony Higgins and

Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...

, set in 1927 Paris. It premiered at the

1981 Cannes Film Festival The 34th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 27 May 1981. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Człowiek z żelaza'' by Andrzej Wajda. The festival opened with '' Three Brothers'' (''Tre fratelli'') by Francesco Rosi and closed with '' Honeysuckle R ...

, and was an entry for the Sélection Officielle (Official Selection). It was adapted from the novel of the same name by

Jean Rhys Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for her ...

Plot

The beautiful Marya "Mado" Zelli (

) 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 (

), a wealthy English art dealer, and his wife Lois (

), 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

as Marya Zelli (nickname Mado) *

as H. J. Heidler *

as Lois Heidler * Anthony Higgins as Stephan Zelli *

Sheila Gish Sheila Gish (born Sheila Anne Syme Gash; 23 April 1942 – 9 March 2005) was an English actress. For her role in the 1995 London revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical ''Company'', she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in ...

as Anna * Suzanne Flon as Madame Hautchamp * Pierre Clementi as Theo *

Daniel Mesguich Daniel Mesguich (born 15 July 1952) is a French actor and director in theater and opera, and professor of stage acting school. Biography In 1970, he was admitted into the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique, after which he opened ...

as Pierre Schlamovitz *

Virginie Thévenet Virginie Thévenet (born 12 January 1957, in Paris) is a French actress, director and screenwriter. Films with Virginie Thévenet as actress * 1970 : '' Les Stances de Sophie'', by Moshé Mizrahi * 1972 : ''Faustine et le Bel Été'' * 1972 : ' ...

as Mademoiselle Chardin * Daniel Chatto as Guy * Armelia McQueen as Night Club Singer

Release

The film was released by the Cohen Media Group on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

in 2019. Robert Abele of the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

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."

Reception

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

Awards

: Best Actress for

Evening Standard Awards The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standa ...

: Best Actress for

References

External links

Merchant Ivory Productions
* {{Authority control 1981 films 1980s historical films British historical films Merchant Ivory Productions films Films directed by James Ivory Films with screenplays by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Films set in Paris Films set in 1924 Films with screenplays by James Ivory English-language French films 1980s British films