Un Tranquillo Posto Di Campagna (aka A Quiet Place In The Country) (1968)

A well known artist (Franco Nero) is plagued with bizarre nightmares. His press agent (Vanessa Redgrave), who is also his mistress, suggests a quiet place in the country to relax. But things become worse as the artist becomes obsessed with the spirit of a young girl (Gabriella Boccardo) who was killed at the villa during WWII. Based on the novel THE BECKONING FAIR ONE by George Oliver Onions and directed by Elio Petri (INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION). Upon its original release, the films reviews were divisive and it's easy to see why. Though the film is often mistakenly referred to as a giallo (as if every Italian film with bloody killings is automatically a giallo), this is more of a psychological thriller. There's no real mystery to it as everything that happens in it points to an obvious and inevitable solution. It's style over substance cinema and Petri has style to burn. Whether it's enough to sustain one's interest in the movie depends on one's tolerance for a pretentious narrative with no logic and lots of kink. I'm quite fond of both Redgrave and Nero which helped a lot. The appropriately cacophonous score is by Ennio Morricone. With Georges Geret and Madeleine Damien.