Tribute to Elio Petri 2014 / Un tranquillo posto di campagna / Italy 1968
Afflicted by a creative crisis, established abstract painter Leonardo (Franco Nero) withdraws to an old, abandoned villa that his art dealer lover Flavia (Vanessa Redgrave) helps him find. But his voluntary seclusion is soon interrupted by a bizarre housemate. This hypnotic visual mosaic and brilliant study of madness is Petri’s most experimental film.
In an effort to overcome a creative crisis, established abstract painter Leonardo (Franco Nero) finds asylum in an old, abandoned villa that his art dealer lover Flavia (Vanessa Redgrave) helps him find. Mentally unstable, the artist succumbs to a fantasy-cum-obsession for a bizarre housemate – the ghost of a 17-year-old countess, an alleged nymphomaniac who was killed during the war. As in his other films, Petri has chosen an ideal story for his brilliant study of advancing madness, drawing on his own distinctive poetics to vigorously denounce social abuses. The work is a hypnotic visual mosaic – clearly Petri’s most experimental film, beautifully shot by Luigi Kuveiller (Silver Bear at the Berlinale 1969) – in which he takes ironic digs at consumer society and the artist’s dilemma when confronted with commercial success. Employing a frenetic style and his pointedly expressive use of color, the director ponders identity, sex, and death against a backdrop of modern schizophrenia and alienation. Here, too, his theses are never a bore; indeed, his horror onslaught is pure entertainment, compelling the viewer to ride the limits of suspense. Modern art was Petri’s passion, and for the film he ordered a series of abstract paintings executed by pop-artist Jim Dine.
107 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Elio Petri
/ Screenplay Elio Petri, Luciano Vincenzoni, Tonino Guerra
/ Dir. of Photography Luigi Kuveiller
/ Music Ennio Morricone
/ Editor Ruggero Mastroianni
/ Producer Alberto Grimaldi
/ Production P.E.A.
/ Coproduction Les productions artistes associes
/ Cast Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Georges Géret, Gabriella Bocca, Madeleine Damien
/ Contact Park Circus Group, Istituto Luce Cinecitta Srl, Alberto Grimaldi Productions
Park Circus Group
15 Woodside Crescent, G37UL, Glasgow
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 141 332 2175
E-mail: [email protected]
Istituto Luce Cinecitta Srl
, 001 73, Rome
Italy
Alberto Grimaldi Productions
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Italy
E-mail: [email protected]
Paola Pegoraro
Other
Milena Gregor
Film Institution Rep.
Franco Nero
Actor / Film Director
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