Introduction:
It is evident that James Ivory conducted an incredible amount of independent research to appropriately adapt the book to film. This has shed light on the amount of work required to create a film that aligns with the author’s original intent while still making it a unique project for the director. Adapting a book to a movie is quite different than writing an original screenplay; a certain amount of work must be conducted to study and then successfully stay true to the book’s tone. James Ivory did plenty of independent research before he made executive decisions on production, promotion, and editing. Jean Rhys had a great influence on every aspect of the film and this can be seen in the documents that we found within the archive.
Synopsis:
Quartet was filmed in 1981, directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. The film focuses on the lives of four people living in 1920’s Paris. The main character is Marya Zelli and her husband Stefan. When Stefan is sent to jail Marya is taken in by H.J. and Lois Heidler. H.J. and Marya enter into a sexual relationship which she sees no way to escape from and eventually falling in love with H.J. Ultimately Marya is able to break away from the Heidlers but Stefan also leaves her.
Michael E Schmidt
My research focused on Jean Rhys, writer of the original novel. Upon poring over some personal items and life accounts, I began to notice some striking parallels between Quartet and Jean’s actual life. I then consulted a biography of Rhys, written by Diana Athill, which was present in the same folder. Within the biography, Athill informs readers of Rhys’s troublesome life; she was a victim of racism, poor love affairs, and a constant struggle for money. Rhys managed to escape some of this suffering through writing. Athill states that Rhys “discovered that she could purge her misery by writing a full account of this affair in what she thought of as a diary…For Jean Rhys writing was always to be a way of ordering disorder and mastering pain.”
It is interesting to see what was more of a therapeutic writing exercise become a prospect for a modern film. Rhys herself did not even know that this would become a book itself. In her personal account of her affair with Mr. Ford – the affair that Quartet is based off – Rhys states that “when after a long struggle Quartet stopped being a record of facts and became a book with a start, a middle and an end, where the characters acted sometimes independently of me and without my will.” The whole account follows quite an uncomfortable relationship when Jean falls on hard times; her husband is arrested and he is ‘invited’ to stay with a rich couple, where manipulation – including the promiscuous type – occurs. This is almost the movie verbatim, and Ivory does a stellar job of creating a sense of uncomfortable helplessness for Marya.
Because I read these documents before viewing the film, I was able to watch with a certain level of familiarity otherwise unachievable. It is evident that these items had an effect on the production of the film as opposed to Ivory only reading the book itself.
Tessa N Freeland
I focused on the creation of the film narrative and the writing of the script. The collection contained several versions of the story from the original book to the treatments and then a script. I chose to look at the original book that the filmmakers made notes in, a treatment, synopsis and a version of the final script so that I could trace the changes in the story. Their plans for the script changed drastically from the first version to the filmed version. Inside the book were notes on the pages and underlined passages. The passages that were underlined contained details and scenes that were necessary for telling the story. The treatment was short and to the point, written to grab attention and sell the idea of the film. The synopsis provides a better view of the story than any of the other materials. This document seemed like a guide for the writing of the actual script. It went into detail of important scenes and had pieces of the dialogue that they really wanted in the film. The script was similar to the synopsis and showed much more of the relationships between all the character’s as well more inner monologue from Marya.
I felt a disconnect between these documents and the film, some heavy revising must have happened after the script that I found as much of it is different. This gives me the idea that the writers had trouble keeping the story short while also giving enough of each character to gain the sympathy of the audience. These documents depicted more of a biography for Marya than just a chronicle of her time with the Heidlers. The script includes scenes of Marya with her family and shows how she could have fallen in love with H.J. at all.
Zack Lehman
I looked primarily into the cast and the casting process during preproduction. I found the casting list with all the information for the actors listed. There were three folders full of call sheets. Most of them were in semi good condition with minimal notes, however towards the end I ran across a very used call sheet for a large scale scene, more than likely from one of the party scenes. On the back were written many different phone numbers and notes in different colors of ink. From my looking into it my guess would be that the numbers are for extras in the scene. I also came across a small informal list of people auditioning for a role in the movie. Initially I thought it was for one position but I think that it is a general list as it lists Bill Nighy with a note that he can speak a bit of french and has a great accent along with a mystery candidate for “the young man”.
I also briefly went through the main four actors careers to see their overall acting at the time and where they went after that. Alan Bates played the role of HJ Heidler. In his early career, he mostly did television roles being nominated for many roles during this time. After his role in Quartet he had more television roles and television movies, but he had considerably less acclaim. Maggie Smith, who played Lois Heidler, has had acclaim for most of her career including a nomination for best actress and an award for best actress for Quartet. Isabelle Adjani, played Marya Zelli, starting in the 70’s she won much acclaim for her leading role of The Story of Adele Hugo. From there she has starred in Nosferatu, Possession, and of course Quartet. In 81, when Quartet was shown in the Cannes film festival she won best actress for Quartet and Possession in the same year. Anthony Higgins was an english actor who had little fame until ‘81 where he not only starred in Quartet but also had a minor role in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Morgan M Heinsoo
I looked at a few items dealing with the promotion of Quartet. I found an interview conducted through letters between James Ivory and Michel Maingois that developed into the released interview in the press book for the film. Maingois first mailed Ivory the questions, Ivory answered the ones he liked, then Maingois edited his answers to work for the book.
In the interview Ivory addresses the book to movie comparison and says that he is glad Jean Rhys is not around to see the movie because he knew she was very particular about her writing style (this statement was cut from the final released version). When asked about how the film relates to modern culture, Ivory states that it reflects the “self-indulgence and egotism” of modern times, and also says that it’s hard for a modern audience to recognize “moral shading”. Ivory comments on literary influences for the film and that he chose Isabelle Adjani for Marya because even though she is not French, she seems so perfect for the part. He also comments about how much he enjoyed working with a French crew and getting to know the city of Paris better.
Ivory refused to answer questions that did not directly deal with Quartet. He also refused a question about the fact that this is an unusually hopeless work when considering the previous films in Ivory’s career. Ivory wrote to Maingois that he hoped the interview would be edited well to avoid irritating the critics, or “directing their divine intelligences down a path” (Letter to Michel Maingois).
The promotional book for the film had the completed form of this interview which was edited down from eight questions and answers to four. The book also included cast information, a synopsis, articles on the book and author of Quartet, and other information one would expect (Promotional Book).
Megumi Banse
I focused on the subtitles which covers production and distribution fields. As a bilingual film, the subtitles play an important role in the film. I found two documents that approach the subtitles. Two documents are the letters from Ivory sent to the producer and distributor about subtitles. To see these papers, I would say Ivory was particular about subtitles. One letter is to Lyric International, the other production that Merchant Ivory Productions shared the credit and earnings with. Ivory asks the production to correct some of the subtitles. He wrote the instructions of the correction in detail and tells the exact footage the subtitles are in. He asks them to move the subtitles forward or backward, to split or add the subtitles, and to cut the frame. His explanation of why he is so particular about these corrections appeared in the letter too. He says “It’s most annoying to see subtitles on the screen before the characters have actually spoken.” “12 frames are falling over…and it seems awkward.” “THE PRINT IS PROBABLY DAMAGED…IF THE NEGATIVE IS DAMAGED…DAMN IT AND HELL!” His becoming emotional shows that he really cared about the audience and how these subtitles are shown in the theater.
The other letter is from Ivory to New World Picture, one of the distributors in the U.S. He explained and introduced the French dialogs that are seen in the film which are three categories. The greetings are in the first category, having no bearing on the plot and used for atmospheric purposes. Second are the long passages between two French people, having no bearing on the plot and for avoiding sounding crude, flat, or obvious. The exchanges, having a direct bearing on the plot or giving essential information are in the third category. There were two versions of the film and the French dialogs were subtitled or dubbed according to the categories. For the original version (English-French), every category except the first one was subtitled. For the dubbed version, the first category was left as it was, the second category was subtitled, and the third was dubbed. In the letter he wrote instructions on which dialogs are to be subtitled (meaning not so important) and which are to be dubbed (meaning essential).
Usually, the subtitle isn’t the work of the production. However for Quartet, he organized every work around subtitles. He cared about their words, placement, importance, and appearance. I’m impressed that Ivory realized the significance of the subtitles and organized from the production to the distribution field.
Conclusion:
Through our research we found that the original author of the novel had influence on each part of the film from the treatment to the cast and where the film would eventually be advertised. We also found that the film differed greatly from the novel and much of the first versions of the script. But the film still remained a faithful telling of the story of Jean Rhys’ life and told an intriguing story. The film was well casted and helped the actors with it’s success. James Ivory put a huge amount of time and effort into this film, focusing on every last detail to make sure it was the best it could be, even in a different language. All the parts come together to form a beautiful and tragic story.
Work Cited
Athill, Diana. Jean Rhys Biography. Box 19, Folder 13, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene OR. 9 May 2014.
English Screenplay for Quartet. Box 17, Folder 5, Coll#283. Quartet-Screenplay, James Ivory Papers. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 10 May 2014.
Film Treatment. Box 17, Folder 3, Coll#283. Quartet-Treatment-Origins, James Ivory Papers. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 10 May 2014.
Ivory, James. Ivory’s notes in the Quartet novel. Box 17, Folder 1, Coll#283. Quartet-Treatment-Books, James Ivory Papers. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 10 May 2014.
Letter to James Ivory from Michel Maingois. Box 19, Folder 8, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 9 May 2014.
Letter to Lyric International. Box 17, Folder 8, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 12 May 2014
Letter to Michel Maingois from James Ivory. Box 19, Folder 8, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 9 May 2014.
Letter to New World Pictures. Box 17, Folder 12, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 12 May 2014
Promotional Book for Quartet. Box 19, Folder 1, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 9 May 2014
Quartet Synopsis. Box 17, Folder 3, Coll#283. Quartet-Treatment-Origins, James Ivory Papers. University of Oregon Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 10 May 2014.
Rhys, Jean. L’Affaire Ford. Box 19, Folder 13, Coll#283. James Ivory Papers, Quartet. Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene OR. 9 May 2014.