This movie was beautifully filmed, like all Merchant-Ivory productions, but was difficult to watch. The affair between Adjani's character and Bates' character was completely unbelievable. He was such a creep it was just stomach-turning when Adjani succumbs to his pressure to have sex with him. There was no discernible reason for her to fall in love with him, so it was hard to have sympathy for her character at all. Maggie Smith played her part very well, and was convincing, but again, not sympathetic. Alan Bates was just repugnant. The only sympathetic character was the Polish husband, who was in jail for most of the movie. Another puzzling thing about the movie is that, according to one of the reviewers on this page, there was some suspicion that the husband and Adjani were Bolshevists. While watching the movie, though, it seemed more likely that he was jailed for selling stolen property (the sword, which we saw early in the movie).
Review of Quartet
