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Common Ground

Original title: Lugares comunes
  • 2002
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 48m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
2.1K
YOUR RATING
Federico Luppi and Mercedes Sampietro in Common Ground (2002)
Drama

In Buenos Aires, a few days before traveling to Spain with his beloved wife Liliana Rovira to visit their son Pedro, the leftist Literature professor Fernando Robles is compulsory retired in... Read allIn Buenos Aires, a few days before traveling to Spain with his beloved wife Liliana Rovira to visit their son Pedro, the leftist Literature professor Fernando Robles is compulsory retired in the University, and he concludes that it is impossible to live with his pension. The cris... Read allIn Buenos Aires, a few days before traveling to Spain with his beloved wife Liliana Rovira to visit their son Pedro, the leftist Literature professor Fernando Robles is compulsory retired in the University, and he concludes that it is impossible to live with his pension. The crisis in Argentina does not allow Fernando to get a new job, and his wife decides to sell her... Read all

  • Director
    • Adolfo Aristarain
  • Writers
    • Adolfo Aristarain
    • Lorenzo F. Aristarain
    • Kathy Saavedra
  • Stars
    • Federico Luppi
    • Mercedes Sampietro
    • Arturo Puig
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    2.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Adolfo Aristarain
    • Writers
      • Adolfo Aristarain
      • Lorenzo F. Aristarain
      • Kathy Saavedra
    • Stars
      • Federico Luppi
      • Mercedes Sampietro
      • Arturo Puig
    • 14User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 13 wins & 13 nominations total

    Photos2

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    View Poster

    Top cast18

    Edit
    Federico Luppi
    Federico Luppi
    • Fernando Robles
    Mercedes Sampietro
    Mercedes Sampietro
    • Liliana Rovira
    Arturo Puig
    Arturo Puig
    • Carlos Solla
    Carlos Santamaría
    • Pedro Robles
    Valentina Bassi
    Valentina Bassi
    • Natacha
    Claudio Rissi
    Claudio Rissi
    • Demedio
    Osvaldo Santoro
    José Luis Alfonzo
    Yael Barnatán
    • Fabiana
    Graciela Tenenbaum
    María Fiorentino
    María Fiorentino
    • Tutti Tudela
    Pepe Soriano
    Pepe Soriano
    Florencia Merlo
    • Esposa de Demedio
    Patricia Pan
    • Hija de Demedio
    Micaela González
    • Hija de Demedio
    Lucas Ligorría
    • Hijo de Demedio
    Javier Ortiz
    • Hijo de Carlos
    Guillermo Ayuso
    • Hijo de Carlos
    • Director
      • Adolfo Aristarain
    • Writers
      • Adolfo Aristarain
      • Lorenzo F. Aristarain
      • Kathy Saavedra
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews14

    7.62.1K
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    Featured reviews

    9Yorsh

    The common places where lives go

    How to start again when all the hopes are over? How to keep loving the same woman during all your life? How to change without loosing your ideals? How to get old and feel as the first day of your youth?

    Basic questions, with basic answers that not everybody is willing to hear. Common places where most of us try not to go.

    This film is poetry into a movie. One of the best scripts contents of the Latin American cinema. Aristarain shows one more time to be one of the best ever Argentinean directors.

    Take your time to enjoy it.
    9rainking_es

    Let's talk about life...

    I've always thought that Adolfo Aristaráin is not only a cinema director, he's a philosopher,a thinker, a so lucid mind, and overall an idealist. Cinema is not just something to entertain people but a powerful tool to express himself.

    "Lugares Comunes" (Common places) tells the story of an Argentinian middle-aged couple (played wonderfully by the great Federico Luppi and Mercedes Sampietro which decide to move to the country from Buenos Aires. He's just been fired from the school in which he's been teaching' for most than 30 years (because of his left-winged ideas). So, he a his wife cannot afford to live in B. Aires anymore. That's the base for a long, overwhelming reflection about life, honesty, unconditional love, commitment, and all those things that seem to be a little "old-fashioned" nowadays (but they are not).

    This is a movie to think about, you must focus on it, you have to assimilate what you're hearing... Otherwise, you'll be wasting your time. This ain't nonsense and hollow entertainment, this is something else. Let Aristaráin open your eyes... you won't regret.

    *My rate: 8.5/10
    9jlmartiferriol

    Must see it

    "Lugares Comunes" is an excellent film. No doubt the IMDb rates it with a 8,2 (this is clearly above the average grades I have seen, and I have been exploring this database extensively).

    You probably have to come from Spain or Argentina to really pick up all the subtleties conveyed in the movie. However, the feelings and emotions the film explores are universal.

    I really like Fernando Luppi (he has been involved in many many good films, like "Martín H", or "Nadie hablará de nosotras hasta que hayamos muerto"), but please note Mercedes Sampietro (still the President of the "Academia del Cine" in Spain), who plays the role of her life (so far) in this movie. What she does is something similar as to what Halle Berry shows in Monsters' Ball. Just watch the last minutes of the film, she doesn't speak, she doesn't need to...
    8gradyharp

    Aging: The Hardships and the Rewards

    LUGARES COMUNES (Common Ground) is yet another sensitive Argentinean film that has the courage to deal with the bumpy political life of Argentina as well as the equally rocky road to aging. Based on the novel by Lorenzo F. Aristarain and directed by Adolfo Aristarain this is a film of sunlight and shadows - and those clouds that promise to unveil the sun despite passing darkness.

    Fernando Robles (Federico Luppi) is a writer and university professor in Buenos Aires who is informed before his planned trip to Madrid to visit his son Pedro (Carlos Santamaría) and daughter-in-law Natacha (Valentina Bassi) that he is being placed in early retirement: the crumbling government of Argentina cannot support such things as education! After an exquisite farewell of sage advice to his students on what is important in the role of a teacher, he goes home to his loving wife of many years Liliana (Mercedes Sampietro) to prepare for their journey to Madrid. At the airport Liliana senses sadness in Fernando and he confesses that he has been 'fired', that they have little money to live on in Buenos Aires: he covers his sadness by buying Liliana perfumes she loves. This couple is bonded so beautifully it makes us weep.

    In Madrid the couple is forced to stay with the son and daughter but the closeness of this familial proximity is intolerable when Fernando informs his son of his financial situation. Pedro is cold and harsh and is in life for money and refuses to assist his parents. The couple leaves, returning to Argentina where they under advice from lawyer Carlos (Arturo Puig) sell their home and move to the country where they plan to grow grapes - a return to the purity of the land. But fate intervenes and the story ends in a manner that leaves the viewer sad but wiser.

    The cast is sterling and the direction is first rate. This is one of those films that should be required viewing for many reasons, but especially for people who are approaching the time of retirement and the fear that holds. Highly recommended for a large viewing audience. In Spanish with English subtitles. Grady Harp
    7pifas

    A long well played tango

    There's no other way to describe Lugares comunes but as a beautiful movie. It's a well constructed story that revolves around a literature teacher who's forced into an early retirement due to his ideals. From the beginning he's writing lose notes about the way he feels, and this is useful as a voice in off that narrates high points of the plot as it is also the key that serves mainly as an inner perspective in some matters. He talks about revolution and democracy in the state in an Argentina beaten by the government, depicting the economical and social issues as well as it's day to day surviving culture. The other characters here are his wife (who's from Spain) their son (who lives there) and a close friend of the teacher, who happens to be a lawyer dating a younger woman. Then, by their precarious situation, the couple sell their flat in Buenos Aires and move to the country. That's basically the screenplay: how they learn to live with their new situation.

    Luppi, as the professor, is wonderful; he has a natural driven force that get us in the inner struggles of the character, and his insights are clever, methodical and somehow illustrative, describing and dissecting terms like lucidity (in words and feelings). The dialogues are well guided by a smart hand so, even when there's plenty of them, never get to bore. The others characters are well performed, rounding the experience and adding strength to a tone that goes from somber to bright, and even when it's premise is mainly sad, never turns into one to weep at; it is one to wonder and makes us think rather than sink our mood into mourning or feel sorry for them. It is, as my title says, one long and well played tango based on a biting reality which goes smooth hence pretty delightful.

    I give it four stars out of five.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Quotes

      Fernando Robles: Don't value your students based on their answers. Answers are not true, they seek a truth that will be only relative.

    • Soundtracks
      Amor de mis amores
      Written by Agustín Lara (as Agustín Lara Aguirre)

      Performed by Agustín Lara

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 12, 2002 (Argentina)
    • Countries of origin
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Language
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Common Places
    • Filming locations
      • Córdoba, Argentina
    • Production companies
      • Adolfo Aristarain
      • Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA)
      • Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,108,596
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 48 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital

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