The Letter

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.

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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

Luis Miguel Cintra

M. da Silva

Stanislas Merhar

François de Guise

Ricardo Trêpa

Intrus

Anny Romand

Mme de Silva

Françoise Fabian

Mme de Chartres