The Letter
movie
Released September 22, 1999
Genres:
Overview
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.
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
Crew
Manoel de Oliveira
as
Director
Manoel de Oliveira
as
Screenplay
- no image
Jacques Parsi
as
Writer
Paulo Branco
as
Producer
- no image
Emmanuel Machuel
as
Director of Photography
- no image
Valérie Loiseleux
as
Editor
Jean-Paul Mugel
as
Sound Designer
- no image
Ana Vaz da Silva
as
Production Design
- no image
Ann Chakraverty
as
Set Decoration
Judy Shrewsbury
as
Costume Design
- no image
Emmanuelle Fèvre
as
Makeup Artist
- no image
Jean-François Auger
as
Sound Mixer