As the sun sets on the banks of the Seine, Clémence Poésy settles into a vintage ride to read a love letter written by poet Paul Éluard, to his first wife, Gala, on Friday May 15, 1936, several years after she had left him for Salvador Dalí. Poésy takes on the tone of a modern-day Gala, a self-assured seductress, who was famously a muse to a whole slew of Surrealist artists and writers, including Max Ernst and André Breton. Reading the letter with a hint of regret, she stands firm by her decision to trade in the poet for the painter.

Directed by Elsa Klughertz, the intention was to convey the sense of undated emotion that is tangible in personal letters. “I wanted to capture the moment when the reader suddenly identifies herself with the experiences recounted,” says the Parisienne, whose Lettres Grandes film series also features correspondence by Rainer Maria Rilke and Franz Kafka, as interpreted by other French actors, from the celebrated stage actress Gisèle Casadesus, to newcomer Paul Hamy.