Mercedes Sampietro Movies

As a dog is abandoned one snowy winter night near a local bus stop, three characters awaiting the bus do their best to ignore the situation. Thus begins Judith Colell's film 53 dias de Invierno (53 Winter Days). The film subsequently delves into the life of each passenger, and becomes a trio of stories on conflict - the first psychological, the second emotional, and the third social. Because Colell recounts the tales one-after-another but never intersects or overlaps the narratives per se, her film becomes a foray into the hidden stories that lurk behind the eyes of three strangers, whom we might come across on any random street corner - and who only happen, cosmically, to be sharing the same bus stop at the same moment but may never know one another. In the psychological segment, we meet Mila (Mercedes Sampietro), a local teacher reeling from an assault at the hands of a student, who has taken a yearlong sabbatical to recover; the arc of her story involves her gradual attainment of self-assertion and courage. Segment number two - the segment on emotional conflict - follows Valeria (Aina Clotet), a cellist immersed in an adulterous relationship with her married professor, Hugo (Joaquim de Almeida). The instructor decides to break off the relationship but sends his wife to do the dirty work; meanwhile, Valeria's mother (Silvia Munt) sits at home and struggles to contend with her husband's abandonment of her. And in the third segment (which pertains to social conflict), married security guard Celso (Brendemuhl), struggles to make ends meet - a goal that looms impossible as he discovers his wife, Angela's, (Maria Pau Pigem) expectancy of twins. He foolhardily tries to pocket a necklace from the department store where he works, as a gift for his wife, but is promptly discovered, fired, and thrown out onto the streets - where the terror of confessing his misdeeds to Angela keeps him from heading home. Gemma Ventura penned the script. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

An expectant, ultra-modern mother living in 1913 Barcelona is thrust into a complex and labyrinthine mystery when her psychiatrist husband goes missing and she is forced to seek the help of her conservative brother-in-law in locating her missing spouse in director Joaquin Oristrell's Freudian period comedy. Alma is a modern woman of very modern means; her father Spain's foremost neurosurgeon and her husband, Leon, a devoted follower of controversial Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. After arriving home one summer afternoon to find her tearful husband mumbling incoherent words of woe, Alma's life is turned upside down when Leon suddenly disappears. With no one else to turn to than her lovelorn brother-in-law Salvador -- likewise a psychiatrist who secretly pines for Alma despite being married to her sister -- Alma's discovery of a strange manuscript on hysteria and female sexuality proves the launching point for a tireless quest to locate her missing husband and discover the true meaning behind his inexplicable disappearance. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Gerardo Vera directs this romantic drama about self-destructive love and sexual confusion. Alberto (Jordi Molla) is a respected aeronautical engineer married to artist Elena (Ariadna Gil) and has a son. Yet Alberto soon finds himself seduced by the wiles of hunky orthopedic surgeon Diego (Javier Bardem). Alberto admits to being unfaithful to his wife -- after she confronts him with incriminating evidence -- but he does not reveal that he cheated on her with a man. Seeking revenge, Elena goes out and sleeps with her co-worker Rafa (Javier Albala). Later, though Elena tries to welcome her errant husband back, he continues to shuttle between her and his gay lover. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A man tries to reconcile with his past before it disappears in the allegorical drama Las Huellas Borradas. Manuel (Federico Luppi) is a writer who journeys from Argentina, where he lives, to the Spanish village where he was born; word has reached him that the town will soon literally vanish, as the area is being turned into a giant reservoir. Manuel hopes to tie up some loose ends from his past, and hopes to rekindle his relationship with Virginia (Mercedes Sampietro), whom he loved as a young man. With the village's days numbered, many long-dormant rivalries have been brought back to life, as a number of people hope to settle old scores before progress eliminates their home town. Virginia also has to deal with her daughter Rosa (Elena Anaya) and her sudden rebellious streak -- she's now pregnant, and has decided to move in with her boyfriend Delfin (Sergi Calleja). Meanwhile, Manuel spends some time with his old friend Don Jose (Hector Alterio), with whom he discusses philosophy and the secrets of a town that will soon cease to exist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Oscar-winning Spanish director Jose Luis Garci (the 1982 To Begin Again) filmed this adaptation of the Josep Maria Sagarra novel, set during the '50s in a provincial town, about cardiologist Enrique Molinos (Fernando Guillen), highly regarded as both an academic and a doctor. At home, however, Molinos has a marriage gone sour. His daughter Maribel (Cayetana Guillen) entered a convent to become Sister Maria, and the father and daughter haven't spoke to each other for three years. Now she's about to embark on missionary service in Africa, but her heart arrhythmia and fainting spells prompt the Mother Superior (Julia Gutierrez Caba) to request an examination by the doctor. Molinos is in a happier mood when he trysts with his colleague Julia (Beatriz Santana), but his wife Isabel (Mercedes Sampietro) could create problems. Shown at the 1997 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Carmen (Mercedes Sampietro) is a puzzle to all the people who surround her: her parents, her grown son, and a charming literature professor. They cannot understand how she can prefer solitude to being in their company. Her work certainly thrives in solitude, as she is a restorer of old paintings. She is content to care for one of her infant grandchildren and a new puppy in splendid isolation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Some people would say that Mario is a Basque terrorist, but he would probably say that he is simply a fervent activist on behalf of the Basque nationalist movement. In either case, he occasionally blows things up with the intention of destabilizing things where he lives. Some of these "activists" hang out at a bar called the White Dove, and the owner's daughter has begun forging relationships with them. Eventually a bomb blows up the bar and its apolitical owner, who knows too much for someone not deeply committed to the cause ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This adaptation of Geothe's The Sorrows of Young Werther offers a chilly and remote view of love and its passions. The setting is changed to Spain, and Werther (Eusebio Poncela) has taken a job tutoring the son of an estranged husband and wife. The boy's mother is a surgeon and therefore a rather uncommon woman for her society. She and Werther gradually become romantically involved, and his feelings for her begin to run much deeper than is apparent on the surface. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Bernabe (José Sacristán) works as an artistic director for a publicity firm but his avocation is fawning after his bosses, sleeping with whomever might advance his career, and ignoring his wife. Life continues on in this vein until he meets a young model whom he invites up to his boss's temporarily vacant country house, pretending the house belongs to him. Not very far away, bulldozers and other machinery are clearing the beautifully wooded area so construction can start on an amusement park. Little does Bernabe realize that his potential new conquest is a seriously fanatical environmental advocate, and she arrives at the house with friends, gets Bernabe high and "out of it," and then she and her friends proceed to trash the construction machinery. Once Bernabe comes around again, he finds out what has happened, loses heart for his planned sexual escapade, and begins to appreciate his wife for the first time. Life hardly gets any better -- it turns out his long-suffering wife has fallen in love with someone from his office and she has left him. Bernabe should be sufficiently chastened to mend his ways, but will these setbacks, or any setbacks, be enough to alter his behavior? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide