该片是由詹姆斯·伊沃里执导的爱情片,于1981年上映，主要讲述了:　　It has been said t.hat most great twentieth. century novels in.clude sce.nes in a hotel, a .symptom of the .vast uprooting that h.as occurred in .the. last centur.y: Jam.es Ivory begins Qu.artet wit.h a montage of the hotels o.f Montparnasse,. a quiet prelud.e before our in.troduction to t.he violently lost souls who. in.habit them.　　Adapted from t.he 1928 autobiographical. novel by Jean Rhy.s, Quarte.t is the story of .a love quadrang.le between a complica.ted young West .Ind.ian woman na.med Ma.rya (played by Isa.belle Adj.ani), her husband Stefan (A.nthony Higgins)., a manipulativ.e English art p.atron named Hei.dler (Alan Bates), and his .pai.nter wife Lois (Maggie Smit.h). The film is set in t.he Golden Age of P.aris, Hem.ingway's ".;moveable feast." of cafe cultur.e and extravaga.nt .nightlife, g.litter. and literati: yet. undernea.th is the outline of someth.ing sinister be.neath the polis.hed brasses and. brasseries.　　W.hen Marya's husband is .put. in a Paris prison on charg.es of selling stolen art. works, she is lef.t indigen.t and is taken in .by Heidler and .his wife: the predato.ry Englishman (.who.se character. Rhys .bases on the novel.ist Ford .Madox Ford) is quick to tak.e advantage of .the new living .arrangement, an.d Marya finds h.erself in a stranglehold be.twe.en husband and wife. Lovers. alternately gravitate t.oward and are repe.lled by e.ach other, now pro.fessing their l.ove, now confessing t.heir brutal ind.iff.erence -- al.l the .while keeping up a.ppearance.s. The film explores the va.st territory be.tween the ".;nice" and. the "good.," between outward ref.ine.ment and inner darkness: af.ter one violent episode,. Lois asks Marya n.ot to spe.ak of it to the Pa.ris crowd. &quo.t;Is that all you'.;re worried abo.ut?." deman.ds an .outraged Marya. &q.uot;Yes,&.quot; Lois replies with icy. candor, ".as a matter of .fact."　　Ad.jani won the Be.st Actress award at Cannes .for. her performances in Quarte.t: her Marya is a volati.le compound of Fre.nch schoo.lgirl and scorned .mistress, veeri.ng between tremulous .joy and hysteri.cal. outburst. S.mith s.hines in one of he.r most me.morable roles: she imbues L.ois with a Kath.erine-of-Aragon. impotent rage,. as humiliated .as she is powerless in the .fac.e of her husband's choi.ces. Her interactions wi.th Bates are scene.s from a .marriage that has .moved from disi.llusionment to pale a.cceptance.　　Rut.h P.rawer Jhabva.la and. James Ivory's. screenpl.ay uses Rhys's novel as. a foundation f.rom which it co.nstructs a worl.d that is both .true to the novel and disti.nct.ive in its own right, paint.ing a society that has l.ost its inhibition.s and ina.dvertently lost it.s soul. We are .taken to mirrored caf.es, then move t.hro.ugh the look.ing gl.ass: Marya, in one. scene, i.s offered a job as a model .and then finds .herself in a sa.domasochistic p.ornographer'.;s studio. The film, as pho.tog.raphed by Pierre Lhomme, cr.eates thoroughly cinemat.ic moments that Rh.y's n.ovel could not hav.e attempted: in. one of the Ivory'.;s most memorab.le .scenes, a bl.ack Am.erican chanteuse (.extraordi.narily played by Armelia Mc.Queen) entertai.ns Parisian pat.rons with a big. and brassy jaz.z song, neither subtle nor .ele.gant. Ivory keeps the camer.a on the singer's ac.t: there is someth.ing in he.r unguarded smile .that makes the .danger beneath Montpa.rnasse manners .see.m more acute..