Quand tu liras cette lettre
Jean-Pierre Melville
Thérèse Voise decides not to take her final vows as a Carmelite so as not to leave her young sister Denise alone following the death of their parents. Thérèse decides that her only mission in life now is to watch over her sister. But a young mechanic, used to this sort of adventure, rapes Denise, who then tries to kill herself. Thérèse forces the young man to ask Denise to marry him. He accepts, but as he has absolutely no intention of carrying this out, he tries to seduce Thérèse and seems ready for anything to achieve his ends...
With : Juliette Gréco, Philippe Lemaire, Daniel Cauchy, Irène Galter
Screenplay : Jacques Deval
Image : Henri Alekan
Sound : Julien Coutellier, Jacques Carrère
Editing : Marinette Cadix
Decors : Robert Gys, Raymond Gabutti, Daniel Guéret
Screenplay : Jacques Deval
Image : Henri Alekan
Sound : Julien Coutellier, Jacques Carrère
Editing : Marinette Cadix
Decors : Robert Gys, Raymond Gabutti, Daniel Guéret
Production : Jad Films, SGC, Titanus
Distribution: Gaumont
Distribution: Gaumont
This is Jean-Pierre Melville's most uncharacteristic film. Quand tu liras cette lettre is the only one of his films that he didn't take part in writing. "In the terribly closed-in world of French cinema in 1950, I was still considered as an amateur, a dabbler even. I had never been accepted as being a professional... They had to realise that I was a showman, period. So I had to make a very, very sensible, very, very flat film. A film that stayed on the rails and didn't go off them. This is how I used a very beautiful script, admirably written by Jacques Derval, to make a film that could have been made by any French director at that time... Juliette Gréco was the "wild side" of the film. She has never been "in cinema"... She has never been part of the film world" (J-P Melville).