Yael Barnatan Movies

Based on Lorenzo F. Aristarian's novel Rebirth and directed by Adolfo Aristarian, Common Places is a family drama from Argentina. College professor Fernando (Federico Luppi) and his devoted social worker wife Liliana (Mercedes Sampietro) live in a modest apartment in Buenos Aires. When he is forced into retirement and she is at risk of losing her job due to poor funding, they decide to visit their son, Pedro (Carlos Santamaria), who has a comfortable bourgoise lifestyle in Spain. After the father and son express their differences, Liliana and Fernando sell their apartment and buy a house in rural Cordoba. The middle-aged couple enjoy their new setting until Fernando develops pneumonia. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Veteran Spanish film star Fernando Fernan-Gomez plays, appropriately enough, a veteran actor looking back on his career and wondering what his relatively short future will hold. Don Agustin is a 65-year-old actor travelling to Madrid to perform his one-man show Pepe Guindo, in which he chronicles the life of a jazz musician. Don arrives at the theater, gets into costume with the help of his dresser (Veronica Forque), confers with the director and writer (Jose Maria Pau and Pepon Nieto), and greets the musicians who play his band before going into the evening's performance, which comprises the bulk of the film. As "Pepe Guindo" discusses the life of a performer, and the rewards it has brought him at the expense of his relationships with his family, the actor and his character begin to merge, and Don and Pepe both conclude the evening wondering how much longer they can face an audience while holding on to some shred of their dignity. Fernando Fernan-Gomez was 78 when he made this film, and while the film itself received mixed reviews, his performance was widely praised. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi