Love Letters from a Portuguese Nun (1977)

**have a que** · 11-01-2009 06:35 PM

Die Liebesbriefe einer portugiesischen Nonne (1977)

or

Love A from a Portuguese Nun

There are 2 subjects in this post, Jess Franco's film and As Cartas de uma Freira Portuguesa (Letters of a Portuguese Nun). The real ones. They really exist.

Historically there is one true thing in Jess Franco's movie. The title. He appropriates a famous title of XVII century literature maybe with the intention of baiting a few additional viewers.

All the rest is pure fiction. Good or bad fiction is up to you to decide. I like it. But, besides the title it is 100% fiction. It is 100% Jess Franco and Erwin C. Dietrich creation with a misleading title.

I am a fan of Jess Franco's movies. I saw almost all and I have 56 of them. This is actually one of the best or maybe even the best. It is one of his typical stories of nunsplotation, with all the traditional ingredients of demons, possession and of course its doses of naked bodies and some lesbianism. The only missing usual ingredient is Lina Romay.

It is quite watchable, with an abnormally good plot, shot in a wonderful location and for once with decent actors and more than decent acting. Susan Hemingway in the beginning of her short career has a very good performance in the center role, as well as William Berger (father Vincent) and Ana Zanatti (the Mother Superior). The rest of the cast performs better than what I expected.

Unfortunately, I think that the English language dubbing is mechanical and without emotion.

For more information about the movie and cast see:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076312/

For those that are curious about the Letters (the real ones) I put a few notes after the download links in order to get the record straight.

Just a bit of trivia. Ana Zanatti (mother Superior) studied in a nun boarding school till around 15 years old. She claimed later that this is the reason why she does not believe in God and why she is a lesbian.

In this post you'll find the Director's cut version (89min) in English language in an excelent quality and resolution 720 x 400 as you can see clicking on the thumbnails below:

File data in the preview

IMDB quotes as writers Mariana Alcoforado (Love letters) and Erwin C. Dietrich. I do not know about E. C. Dietrich. But I know that Mariana Alcoforado love letters (they really exist and I have them) have nothing in common with the movie besides the title. Who had the idea of putting the name of Mariana Alcoforado there? It is an abuse.
Opening Jess Franco's movie there are a couple of sentences in German language that say "Dies ist die Geschichte eines Maedchens, das einem brief an Gott schrieb... Gott hat geantwortet." (This is the story of a girl that wrote a letter to God... God answered). Writing this, using that title and putting Mariana Alcoforado in the writers list (IMDB) transforms the abuse into is a bad joke. The real love letters were written by a nun to a lover not to God.
In the real letters there is no devil or God, no satanism, no possessions by the devil, no inquisition, nothing of what we see in the film. They are just the most beautiful love letters I ever read.

When it comes to this movie and its relation with the real Love Letters I have an "unfair" advantage.

Most of this movie was shot in the palace-museum of the Counts of Castro Guimarães in the town of Cascais 30km west of Lisbon or in the palace gardens. Below the clickable thumbnails below will bring you to a picture of the palace and to another with the location of the palace and the gardens in Google Earth.

During my childhood, my father, a man of strong habits, for many years brought me to play in the palace gardens every single Saturday or Sunday. I know that place like my pockets. Every single room in the palace and every single corner of the garden shown in the film are part of my childhood memory.

My only regret is to live 2000km away and to be able to go back there only once or twice a year.

The rest of the movie was shot in Sintra a few kilometers to the North and in my hometown of Lisbon.

Like many other Portuguese I have a passion for the Love Letters and for the 340 year old mystery around them. And I mean the real Letters not Jess Franco "letters". I bought my own Portuguese-French edition more than 20 years ago and since then I keep an eye on the endless discussions between the specialists about their authenticity and authorship.

From my memory and with the help of a few quick searches on the Net to help with the exact dates and people names, I bring you a summary of the facts.

Soror Mariana Alcoforado born in 1640, lived in the town of Beja about 200 km by road South-East of Lisbon. She entered the convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in that same town and became a nun around 1656. She lived in that convent till her death in 1723.

In 1665-1667, French officer Noël Bouton, Marquis de Chamilly and later a Marshal of France was an officer in the Portuguese army during the war against Spain and he was serving in that same town of Beja.

These are historically known and proven facts beyond any possible doubt, about the 2 persons that supposedly are the writer and the recipient of the letters.

Is it possible that a nun in a convent and a foreign officer may come into contact to the point of becoming lovers?

Yes. The nun brothers were also army officers in the same town and at the same time as Noël Bouton. The nun's father was a high ranking official also in Beja during that period. It was common and accepted for nuns to have social contact with their families and acquaintances of their families. These are historical facts. They may have met.

But until now, nobody could prove or disprove that they really met.

Besides, it was common at that time to send wealthy high born girls to convents without real religious vocation just to keep them out of the family inheritance. With the lax discipline in the convents this often ended up with the nuns engaging in torrid love affairs.

This means that the affair related in the letters is perfectly possible and plausible. But till today we still have no definitive proof that it really happened. As well as we have no prove that it did not happen.

What follows is a subject of debate since 1669 when the letters were first published. More than 300 years of discussions.

According to the letters, an officer (unnamed in the letters) and a nun (named Marianne) fell in love.

Only much later they were named as Soror Mariana de Alcoforado and Noël Bouton.

Fearing the scandal (?), the officer Noël Bouton escaped to France.

Soror Mariana wrote 5 short letters to her far away former lover. According to the letters he answered in a distant cold manner but his answers are not available.

These letters were found(?) in France, translated(?) to French by an (initially) unknown translator and published in 1669 by Claude Barbin. It is beyond any discussion that they were published in 1669 by Barbin. All the rest is still object of debate.

The original of the letters was never found and to my knowledge nobody ever claimed to have seen it.

This means that the first public appearance of these letters was in French and their Portuguese or other language editions are translations from the French. The next link brings to a double French-Portuguese full transcription of the letters.

http://www.arlindo-correia.com/141102.html

I recommend those able to understand Portuguese or French to read them. It takes maybe 30 min or even less. But it is a monument of love literature.

Surprised by the size? Yes, they are just that. Just 5 short letters and a few pages.

I know that there are English translations circulating on the net but could find none.

Once published, these letters created a sensation in the literary circles all over Europe. To the point of launching a new style in literature that lasts till today.

Their second edition quickly followed this time in Germany in that same year of 1669. In this second edition it was mentioned for the first time that the letters had been translated by the Count of Guilleragues, Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne and that the letters were addressed to Noël Bouton, Marquis de Chamilly by a still unnamed Portuguese nun.

In 1810, almost 150 years later, the name of Mariana Alcoforado was mentioned for the first time as the writer of the letters.

Around 1900 most specialists believed the letters were authentic, Soror Mariana was the author and Noel Bouton was the recipient.

Today it is exactly the opposite. With few exceptions most specialists believe the letters are a masterpiece of the literature and the product of the imagination of the "translator" the Count of Guilleragues.

I leave the debate for the specialists. I do not really care who wrote them. Whoever did it produced a masterpiece.

Below you can find a few pictures of the convent where Mariana Alcoforado was a nun for many years, today transformed in the regional Museum of Beja. There is also a picture of its location in the Town of Beja and another picture showing the relative positions of the convent in Beja and the palace in Cascais where most of the film was shot (click on thumbnails for the full size pictures).

Maybe we should suggest to Jess Franco to make another movie about the real story. A 340 year old mystery deserves that. If Jess Franco reproduces the hot affair suggested in the real letters we may see a film even better than this one.

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