A Quiet Place in the Country

Not sure if this is intentional - but the movie seems little artistic/weird & sometime disjointed. That's not necessarily bad thing - at least in this case, because it adds to to eeriness of the plot & setup. Nero acted brilliantly as a half crazy painter & other supporting actors too performed well. The end was very interesting & mostly left on imagination of audience to correctly interpret it. Overall, quite enjoyable.

A mad artist can't separate fantasy from reality and takes us on a 106 minute, sleep-inducing journey through his own illusions, which include a vision of a girl who died twenty years ago in an Italian villa. Cinematic chloroform from what should have been a fascinating film. Had the music not been so frightfully avant-garde, I might have enjoyed this a little more. I got the point that the music reflected his inner turmoil, but it was just a bit too noisy and chaotic for me. Also, his imitation of a three year old who can't keep the same train of though for more than five minutes de-railed my interest in the story. Vanessa Redgrave, especially, and the rest of the cast give fine performances, but the movie just didn't work for me. This film was a real disappointment and I kept thinking what Mario Bava could have done with material like this!

Elio Petri's oddity stars Franco Nero as a moody artist, who, on the advice of girlfriend Vanessa Redgrave, moves out to the Italian countryside and takes up residence in a decaying castle. The tranquility is short-lived as Nero goes from moody to insane. The castle may or may not be haunted by a young girl who was killed there during WWII. Some of the locals seem to know more than they're willing to let on. Nero is excellent and he & Vanessa Redgrave have A LOT of chemistry. Petri's strange directorial touches don't always work and there's probably one too many hidden rooms for Nero to discover, but this is a fine and very creepy psychological thriller. Ennio Morricone's one of a kind music score is among his best. Featuring Georges Géret as a guilt-ridden ex-lover of the mystery girl and a very outré cameo by Madeleine Damien.

The canny on-screen pairing of Vanessa Redgrave & Franco 'Django' Nero generates some considerable frisson in this taut, atmospheric Italian chiller. This enigmatic, surreal Giallo is an unwarranted sleeper since 'A Quiet Place in the Country' (1968) is a skilfully wrought, perceptively eerie treatise on madness; with exceedingly robust performances from the two uncommonly attractive leads, assured direction by maestro Elio Petri and a marvellously evocative and uneasy score from Ennio Morricone, ensures that watching this Giallo-Gothic is time well spent. 'A Quiet Place in The Country' sits happily alongside 'Repulsion' & 'The House with Laughing Windows' in terms of macabre mood, eye-popping style and deliciously skewed content. Special mention HAS to be made of the wonderfully Godardian, pop-art title sequence, given considerable pep via Morricone's exquisite avaunt-beatnik grooves!

A hypnotic Italian thriller about a very imaginative young painter (Nero). He's popular, energetic, so are his paintings. His matron and lover (Redgrave) is going to do everything to make him do his thing. She's willing to create an environment in which he'd be able to churn out more work that's hot and expensive. He decides he needs a quiet place in the country to live and paint in. But as they find such a place, he gets distracted big time... This film is brilliantly crafted. Full of striking and dynamic visuals created by clever camera-work. Always logical, insane, but never "cheesy", "Quiet Place..." at times reminds of Fulci's "Lucertola con la Pelle di Donna" and Verhoeven's "De Vierde Man". Franco Nero's a dead ringer to Kurt Cobain in this one. He's so great in this role that it's almost as if he isn't acting. Highly recommended to fans of Bunuel, Verhoeven, Argento, etc.

I tracked this rarely seen Italian horror on Polish TV and I'm really glad that I taped it.This is a truly bizarre study of madness,which reminds me Polanski's "Repulsion"(1965).The main character-a painter brilliantly played by Franco Nero is trying to run away from his strange visions.He visits an old mansion to find peace,quiet and inspiration,but it seems that this place is haunted by the ghost of a young girl.He slowly loses his sanity...This unjustly forgotten and rather disturbing horror film is a cinematic pleasure to watch for fans of bizarre Italian cinema.The characters are really weird,the musical score by Ennio Morricone is unforgettable and there are some genuine moments of insanity and creepiness.Elio Petri created an unique film,which should be seen by everybody(not only by horror fans!).Highly recommended.