When You Read This Letter

After her parents’ sudden death, Thérese (Juliette Gréco, Orpheus) decides to leave the convent to run the family business and care for her younger sister, who is involved with local lowlife Max (Philippe Lemaire). Then rape, attempted suicide, blackmail, a rigged car accident, and a one-sided love affair combust in a startling conclusion. Virtually unseen since its initial 1953 release, and never theatrically distributed in the United States, Jean-Pierre Melville’s (Army of Shadows, Bob le Flambeur) rare venture into melodrama will screen in a newly restored DCP.