The Letter
107 mins
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.
Madame de La Fayette
Writer
Jacques Parsi
Writer
Emmanuel Machuel
Director of Photography
Valérie Loiseleux
Editor
Ana Vaz da Silva
Production Design
Ann Chakraverty
Set Decoration
Emmanuelle Fèvre
Makeup Artist
Jean-François Auger
Sound Mixer