Release Date

22 Sep, 1999

Runtime

01:47: (HH:MM)

Synopsis

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.

Original Title

La Lettre

Photos

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Actors

Chiara Mastroianni

Pedro Abrunhosa

Antoine Chappey

Leonor Silveira

Maria João Pires

Luís Miguel Cintra

Stanislas Merhar

Ricardo Trêpa

Anny Romand

Françoise Fabian

Crew

Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira

Madame de La Fayette

Jacques Parsi

Paulo Branco

Emmanuel Machuel

Valérie Loiseleux

Jean-Paul Mugel

Ana Vaz da Silva

Ann Chakraverty

Judy Shrewsbury

Emmanuelle Fèvre

Jean-François Auger