The Letter

The Letter (1999)

Drama

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.

Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Writer: Manoel de Oliveira

Casts

	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

Crew