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The Letter (1999)
Directed by Manoel de Oliveira
Drama · 1h 47m
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
Mme de Clèves
Pedro Abrunhosa
Pedro Abrunhosa
Antoine Chappey
M. de Clèves
Leonor Silveira
La religieuse
Maria João Pires
Maria João Pires
Luís Miguel Cintra
M. da Silva
Stanislas Merhar
François de Guise
Ricardo Trêpa
Intrus
Anny Romand
Mme de Silva
Françoise Fabian
Mme de Chartres
Alain Guillo
Le directeur de Jouillerie
Claude Lévèque
Le médecin de Mme de Chartres
Crew
- Director
- Manoel de Oliveira
- Screenplay
- Manoel de Oliveira
- Writer
- Jacques Parsi
- Novel
- Madame de La Fayette
- Director of Photography
- Emmanuel Machuel
- Editor
- Valérie Loiseleux
- Producer
- Paulo Branco
Details
- Original title
- La Lettre
- Release date
- 1999-09-22
- Runtime
- 1h 47m
- Genres
- Drama
- Original language
- FR
- Spoken languages
- French, Portuguese
- Countries
- France, Portugal, Spain
- Production
- Gemini Films, Wanda Films, Madragoa Filmes