In Milan, the prominent painter Leonardo Ferri (Franco Nero) is a disturbed man that lives with his agent Flavia (Vanessa Redgrave). He has sadomasochistic nightmares with Flavia and shows signs of insanity. He asks Flavia to rent a villa in a quiet place in the countryside to produce his paints. Leonardo chooses a derelict villa that belonged to a promiscuous countess that was murdered during the war and Flavia moves back to Milan. Soon Leonardo is haunted by the countess... or should it be madness?"Un tranquillo posto di campagna", a.k.a. "A Quiet Place in the Countryside", is a film that aged. Watching it for the first time in 2018 shows a dated tiresome and confused horror film and the best chance to see the eternal Vanessa Redgrave, sexy and gorgeous, and her husband Franco Nero in the lead roles. But the screenplay is typical for a movie from the late 60´s. Elio Petri is best known as a great director of political films but his work in horror genre is quite confused and disappointing. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Um Lugar Tranquilo no Campo" ("A Quiet Place in the Countryside")

After a demented credit sequence, things calm down a bit by presenting Franco Nero in his pants, tied to a chair, while Vanessa Redgrave surrounds him with electric gadgets, including an underwater television which she places between his legs. Vanessa then murders Franco in the shower. It's a typical artist's day.And a dream, thankfully. Franco is having trouble completing any picture these days, and Vanessa, as his wife/manager, is getting rather frustrated that he sits around reading porn and being crazy rather than doing anything else. Worse still, he becomes obsessed with a house he spies in the country (in this film, that means that Franco appears and BECKONS HIMSELF into the house, yep, it's one of 'those' films). Franco loves the house but is rather creeped out by certain rooms near the top, and tells Vanessa that 'there's a ghost in my house' and ghost that wants to kill Vanessa, judging by the things pulling her through the floor and trying to fry her while she's having a shower. This might be the spirit of Wanda, a girl with the fanny of a burst couch judging by the stories the locals tell about her.I'm describing this like it's a straightforward 'vengeful ghost' film, but that's far from the truth as the first twenty minutes involving Franco's daily routine are utterly brain melting, and serves to make you doubt anything you see for the entire duration of the film. Is there actually a ghost at all? Is there a conspiracy against Franco or is he just mental? To top it all, there's about three different unreliable narrators in this film too.And on top of that there's the insane direction and the bizarre Morricone soundtrack. We often see things happen about three times in a row from various angles, like Franco appearing to garrotte his wife, but then not doing that at all, or Franco watching himself painting, or frequently imagining himself as Wanda or one of her lovers, or even a guy that gets murdered. Totally off the wall. Morricone's soundtrack is equally mental, going from AMM style improve to tuneless Resident's piano with slide whistle!This is a stand out film for me. Not a classic, but a good one due to the off-beat direction and the usual solid Nero performance. Aye.

"A Quiet Place in the Country (1969) is about an Italian painter who rents a villa that is haunted by the spirit of a young woman killed during WWII. Essentially, that is about it, as far as a plot for this film. Franco Nero plays the stereotypical image of a temperamental artist; arrogant and dismissive of others, his character is not exactly what one would call warm. The first part of the film is somewhat dull. Nero is shacked up with his lover (Vanessa Redgrave) who encourages his painting, although her motives seem to be more financial, his for the artistry. For whatever reason, he becomes obsessed with a run-down Italian villa and moves there. Nero is plagued by dreams about a young girl who lived in the village and was promiscuous with some of the males who still reside there. The film becomes more interesting as Nero tries to unravel the mystery of how the young woman died, who she was involved with -- and it begins to drive him into total madness. I won't give away the very bizarre ending, and I am not sure I could explain it myself! One positive here is the creepy atmosphere the director manages to set -- one can almost feel the spirit of the young woman throughout the villa. There are some very fascinating visuals throughout. All of that said, the plot is at times quite disjointed, full of holes and unanswered questions. Nero is fascinating to watch, and I confess I knew little of him as an actor. Vanessa Redgrave, always one of my favorites, is given little to do here. Her devotion to Nero's character seems to border on the pathological at times, and we get slight glimpses into their bizarre and -- I think -- unhealthy relationship. This is definitely not a film for everyone, but I found it interesting, despite its flaws.

A Quiet Place in the Country is a rarely seen film, and that's probably owing to the fact that sourcing an English language copy is rather difficult. I was lucky enough to find one, and although I'm not going to rave about this film as some others have; it's certainly very interesting and was worth the trouble of tracking it down. The film is likely to divide opinion because it doesn't really follow any logical structure, and mostly relies on style and atmosphere to get its points across. Films like this have to work extra hard to get me to like them as I'm a fan of films that tell a story...and I'd say it just about manages it. The plot focuses on Leonardo Ferri; a tortured artist. He is haunted by strange visions and suffers from nightmares. Because of this, he feels he needs to get away to the countryside. He ends up staying in a country villa; but his tranquillity is soon interrupted when it emerges that the villa is haunted by the ghost of a girl. Leonardo then becomes obsessed by the idea of the haunting, and edges ever closer to losing his mind.My main reason for wanting to see this film is the fact that it stars the great Franco Nero. It has to be said that this isn't really an actor's film as the focus is more on the visuals; but in spite of that, Nero still manages to impress with a performance that hits all the right notes. Nero leads the film and plays the only character of any sustained significance; but he does receive some decent support from Vanessa Redgrave. The plot is very fragmented in the way that it's structured and often trails off in directions you wouldn't expect. At times it's easier just to forget about what is going on and just watch the film itself without worrying about the plot. Director Elio Petri creates a surreal atmosphere, which compliments the plot nicely and helps to increase the potency of many of the visuals featured. The plot line about the haunting does not begin until half way through the film; although it is the film's only real attempt to tell a story. Even so, the film is a success rated purely on the quality of what we're seeing on screen...although viewers that appreciate a good story may be disappointed.