Movielogr
A Quiet Place in the Country (1968)
Directed by Elio Petri
Twitter Facebook Google+Overview
A painter facing a creative block arranges to spend the weekend in the country at his mistress’s villa. While staying there, his sanity begins to disintegrate.
Rated R | Length 106 minutes
Actors
Franco Nero | Vanessa Redgrave | Georges Géret | Gabriella Boccardo | Madeleine Damien | Valerio Ruggeri | Rita Calderoni | Renato Menegotto | Bruna Simionato | Renato Lupi | Umberto Di Grazia | Giuseppe Bella | Arnaldo Momo | Otello Cazzola | Camillo Besenzon
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/15/2019 | TV | Blu-ray | Library | 7.5 stars |
| (Average) 7.5 stars |
Viewing Notes
This is billed as horror (even Scream Factory released it) but it’s not. Sure, horror-adjacent (been saying that a lot lately) but not horror. The main character Leonardo, portrayed marvelously by Franco Nero is a typical fragile artist when we meet him but slowly goes down this dark descent into madness (this is the description used on IMDb/TMDb). He’s seeing weird shit and having nightmares, some of which cause him to act irrationally or violent.
I can understand how some might consider this horror but it’s more psychological thriller. Vanessa Redgrave is a-fucking-mazing in this. I had no idea that her and Nero were romantically involved!!!!! I watched the long interview w/Nero in the extras that was filmed in 2015. He talks about first meeting her and how her daughters were like his daughters. Anyways, it now makes sense why they have great chemistry in this film.
This is such a wild flick with interesting ideas + the eccentric artist type + cool visuals that I want to own it. Plus I wanna hear that commentary track. Just a lot going on here. Also hearing Nero talk about the film made me appreciate it even more. Man, I love that guy and I’m sad that he’s getting up there. He talks about this script that Elio Petri wrote but never made b/c of his untimely death. But Nero still wants to make the film but not star in it and I’m like, “get on that shit! The window is closing Franco!!”
He has so many stories. Now I wanna track down other interviews with him. In just this 30 min segment he talks about making films with Corbucci and others, replacing Coburn on The Mercenary, going to Chicago Film Fest with Petri, and a bunch of other stuff. So fucking cool.
Oh, great story: Elio Petri told him to do DJANGO. Nero was like, “fuck that shit; I’m an actor!” Petri says, “does anybody know who you are?” “No” “Okay then, take the fucking role.” the rest is history!
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