A Quiet Place in the Country

R

1970

1 hr. 45 min.

Horror

List

100%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

51%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

After enduring a series of nightmares, painter Leonardo Ferri (Franco Nero) decides he needs to get out of Milan. His agent and sometime lover, Flavia (Vanessa Redgrave), is able to find a remote villa for him to work in, but country life proves no less turbulent than life in the city. A supernatural presence haunts the villa, and after some research Leonardo comes to believe it's the ghost of a mysterious countess killed during a World War II air raid.

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Moira K

The very abstract, discordant soundtrack in addition to noise(s) heard throughout, eg, the phone ringing were intolerable. They didn't create a sense of horror or anguish, rather they were very annoying, like fingernails dragged down a blackboard. Such disruptive noise disrupted my concentration and ability to follow the film. This was unfortunate as there appeared to be many visual cues for me to focus on. Music can help create an atmosphere, such that the music itself is barely noticeable if it suits the genre, and the audience has a sense of happiness, sadness, uncertainty, fear, etc due to the music played. Sounds which take over during a film are not doing the film justice. This was not done well at all with A Quiet Place in the Country. I can't say much for the story as all I could focus on was very unpleasant noise(s) throughout.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/22/24

Full Review

s r

Crazy, but compelling. A Haunted Italian villa drives an artist mad.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Director Petri visits giallo country, but the film never quite gets its bearings.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Audience Member

This tale of onsetting madness is trademark Petri with enough ambiguities in the plot to allow for (force?)multiple interpretations.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

Disturbing and yet intriguing experimental film. Reminded me of The Shining....

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Had to watch this without subtitles, so Tonino Guerra's dialogue is lost to you unless you speak Italian. Still, the emphasis is on visual storytelling in an overt homage mixing Poe with avant garde technique. In some ways, this is the antithesis of Petri's La Decima Vittima. Nero is plagued by violent impulses towards Redgrave, strangulation fantasies, and self-mutilation. The cinematography expresses this through extreme close-ups and off-kilter framing for scenes of romance bordering on the violent, and deliberately unfocused pans across broken and decayed surfaces or through semi-opaque or poorly reflective ones. It may not be the best work of any single person involved, but it truly deserves an HD transfer as well as subtitles. Especially for a nearly pitch black seance that goes in and out of direct lighting with the rising hysteria of its participants. The scenes of Nero going nuts on Redgrave with a shovel while Morricone's non-diegetic, atonal score pipes away in the foreground are even more disturbing, and the finale wraps it up well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Elio Petri

Director

Franco Nero

Leonardo Ferri

Vanessa Redgrave

Flavia

Georges Geret

Attilio

Gabriella Grimaldi

Wanda

Madeleine Damien

Wanda's Mother

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Margaret Hinxman

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Like many excellent Italian directors Petri doesn't underrate horror or short-change its addicts. He puts as much care and consideration into the marginal pleasures of chilling spines as he does into exposing the massive menace of Fascist omnipotence.

Mar 11, 2020

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

'A Quiet Place in the Country' is a truly disturbing film by Elio Petri. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7/10

Aug 7, 2020

Full Review

Pamela Jahn

Electric Sheep

Blending sex, love, madness, identity crisis, alienation, death, art, consumerism and social commentary in a hypnotic, dazzling visual swirl of bold colours, powerful emotions and artistic expression, it is a feast of experimental visual imagery...

Sep 26, 2017

Full Review

Ed Whitfield

What Culture

Psychologically dense, ambiguous in intent and profoundly unsettling.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 6, 2011

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Its startling images were chillingly effective.

Rated: B-

Nov 4, 2010

Full Review

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Synopsis

After enduring a series of nightmares, painter Leonardo Ferri (Franco Nero) decides he needs to get out of Milan. His agent and sometime lover, Flavia (Vanessa Redgrave), is able to find a remote villa for him to work in, but country life proves no less turbulent than life in the city. A supernatural presence haunts the villa, and after some research Leonardo comes to believe it's the ghost of a mysterious countess killed during a World War II air raid.

Director: Elio Petri
Screenwriter: Elio Petri, Luciano Vincenzoni
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 10, 2017

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