Lettere di una novizia (1960)
Directed by Alberto Lattuada

Film Review

This run-of-the-mill melodrama from director Alberto Lattuada would be easily overlooked were it not for the presence of two up-and-coming French actors, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Pascale Petit.  Their contribution alone gives the film a touch of "New Wave" modernity which is otherwise belied by the staid direction and rather unimaginative cinematography.  The laboured 'policier' style first appears a tad ridiculous in the film's first half, but just about makes sense when the explosive climax is reached.

Film Synopsis

Margarita Passi is a young woman who hopes that by entering a convent she will be able to put her past behind her, but it is not to be.  Before she can take her sacred vows, her priest, Don Paolo Conti, receives an anonymous letter which reveals that Margarita has been forced to become a nun against her will.  Confronted with this discovery, the young novice has no choice but to tell her tragic tale.  It begins with Margarita living with her mother on the large farming estate that she had just inherited from her father.  Money is scarce and life on the land is hard, so the young woman is eager to sell the farm, but she cannot do this until she has come of age.

In the meantime, Margarita and her mother have to keep the farm going as best they can, working impossible hours for a pittance.  In the end the young woman can no longer bear to see her mother's suffering so she decides to hasten things along by getting married.  As luck would have it, an eligible young man presents himself and Margarita is soon in love.  What she doesn't yet know is that the man she plans to marry is in fact her mother's lover.  When Margarita discovers the truth she finds it impossible to accept and in a moment of madness she kills her lover.  Thankfully she has a considerate mother who can keep her head in a crisis...