The Letter (1999)
A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.
- Released
- 1999-09-22
- Genres
- Drama
- Runtime
- 107 min
- Status
- Released
- Directed / written by
- Manoel de Oliveira, Manoel de Oliveira
- TMDB rating
- 6.0/10 from 15 votes
Cast
- Chiara Mastroianni as Mme de Clèves
- Pedro Abrunhosa as Pedro Abrunhosa
- Antoine Chappey as M. de Clèves
- Leonor Silveira as La religieuse
- Maria João Pires as Maria João Pires
- Luís Miguel Cintra as M. da Silva
- Stanislas Merhar as François de Guise
- Ricardo Trêpa as Intrus
- Anny Romand as Mme de Silva
- Françoise Fabian as Mme de Chartres
- Alain Guillo as Le directeur de Jouillerie
- Claude Lévèque as Le médecin de Mme de Chartres