Hector Babenco looked angry, but he was not. His gaunt face and huge bulging eyes always gave the impression of discomfort. Among the international media fame grew he detested interviews.
Four years ago agreed to grant one to this day. When answering the phone from his home in São Paulo (Brazil), the ogre who had been fed by a bad moment or an uncomfortable question faded.
“Ask me about what you’re curious,” he she heard him say on the other side of the line, with a soft accent despite having lived half a century in Brazil, keeping the nuances of his native Argentina. (See also: Died filmmaker Hector Babenco)
His voice trailed on Wednesday night, at 70 years old. Babenco’s heart stopped so explosive, confirmed the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital of São Paulo city.
In all, directed 14 productions, including feature films, a documentary and television episodes. Most produced in Brazil.
Although born in the Argentina city of Mar del Plata in February 1946, into a family of Jewish immigrants, Hector Eduardo Babenco “film director’s Brazilian felt all “as he told the press in the mid-90s.
His arrival in Brazil occurred in 1969, when it had not even finished high school and evading military service. Already filed, he worked as a photographer to raise the money to shoot his first feature. O Rei da Noite in 1975
The recognition would come with Lúcio Flávio or Passageiro da Agonia (1977) and Pixote (1981), this latest film about Brazilian children living in poverty.
“I remember almost simultaneously with Pixote appeared a Colombian film called Gamín (director Ciro Duran), which was very similar to mine. Unfortunately, it is the only reference I have of Colombian cinema, “he told TIME at the time.
As a filmmaker always focused on raw stories, featuring dense, marginal and even truculent characters which drew on the big screen inspired by a social reality that was more extravagant than the same fiction.
success spider
in 1985, Sonia Braga world met in one of his most memorable roles, kiss of the spider woman (kiss of the spider woman) which also featured Raul Julia and William Hurt. It was the first film that Babenco directed in English.
“I never worked in Hollywood, I made films in English, which is different, because they were not produced or distributed by the studios,” says vehemently.
“I have nothing against Hollywood, but say that it is a misnomer,” he said in the interview of 2012, which preceded his arrival in Cartagena, where he was jury of the official competition film festival.
the adaptation of the novel by Argentine Manuel Puig took far his director: one year after the release of kiss of the spider woman became the first filmmaker in Latin America to be nominated as best director at the Oscars.
in the end, the film was nominated in three categories and Hurt the statuette for best actor was for her unforgettable portrayal of a gay man who is arrested for being accused of seducing a minor.
the successful passage of the film, which earned four nominations for Golden Globe and a the Palme d’Or at the Festival Cannes- made the Argentine-Brazilian repeated in English with Ironweed (1987), which featured Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in the central roles and they deserved their Oscar nominations.
and closed its cycle in English with Play in the fields of the Lord (1991), a blockbuster that was filmed in the Amazon, with Tom Berenger and Kathy Bates.
‘the kiss of the spider woman’ seemed the top in the race Babenco, after having criticism and tuned public. However, it represented one of the roughest productions, especially because he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer that sidelined him finishing the film, which went ahead thanks to the intervention of its producer, New Yorker David Weisman.
 ‘Carandiru’ (2003) holds the record for being the highest grossing film in Brazil’s history. It is inspired by a true story. particular file
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Disease and film
During the phone talk Babenco with this newspaper he would not talk about the disease that affected him for nearly a decade and whose treatment did not prevent him from working
“you know. difficult it is to get up in the morning, open the window and see the reality. Now that’s very difficult, “he said the director faced a harsh critic setback when it premiered lit Heart (1996), filmed in his native country.
Your claim was given seven years later when he presented Carandiru (2003), a portrait of the slaughter of 111 inmates occurred at the hands of the Military Police of the state of São Paulo in the largest prison in the city, after a mutiny.
for writer and director was an investment of four million dollars that left him not only profits, but also the record of having led the Brazilian film most watched of all time with more than six million viewers.
“Only prisoners, policemen and God can tell what really happened there,” summed up Babenco own in 2003, when the movie came to theaters.
in his visit to Cartagena, in the 2012, was its solemnity when he sat in the theater chairs Adolfo Mejia, surrounded by the other jurors and journalists who attended today missing functions behind closed doors at 9 am.
“What cold here, “it was all I had questions before starting those film sessions, hit by a strong air conditioning.
After his death, survived by his wife Barbara and daughter Janka. His work has transcended the big screen and has become the input of TV series (Carandiru) and theater productions (Kiss of the Spider Woman).
The last years spent a lot of time writing at home , he said, to avoid choking traffic São Paulo. Since 2007, with the past, he had not made a feature film.
 “My Hindu friend ‘(2015), with two-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe reveals cancer asides that exceeded Babenco. particular file
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“It’s a morbid film, which is between Rosemary’s Baby and a Mexican melodrama ‘explained about the past. It is the story of jealousy of a demented woman. Working with a fragile male character (who played the Mexican Gael Garcia), him suffer for things of the heart, I thought it was a character neglected in film, because we are used to seeing men who decide, forts, they send “
But the experience with the past was not the best, because he sold the distribution rights to Capital Films in London, which filed for bankruptcy.; that prevented the tape reached theaters outside Argentina and Brazil, countries producers.
“He had a very happy confection, but a tragic final half because the film did not walk, he was blocked ( …). It makes me a tight spot in the heart of knowing that Gael, who gave so hard and honestly to make the film, saw the project did not come from those two countries. Although already talked many times, I feel a little sad, “he said at the time.
Interestingly, the last film shot last year became the only containing sections of his own life. In the end, he decided to talk about her cancer, but not through an interview, but as always preferred to do it. In a script that film was made
My Hindu friend (2015) closed the cycle of his cinema and his life. With the performance of renowned American actor Willem Dafoe, the story delves into the drama of a sick man and chemotherapies.
“It is not a biography. It can not be inspiring object of the work itself. There are elements in the character Dafoe resembling what I went through, but it is a fictional story, “he told reporters when presenting the film in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year.
In the reality Babenco, that tragic film had an encouraging end: his cancer was cured when he received a bone marrow transplant in 1995
his death was discussed even by the interim president of Brazil, Michel Temer.: “I deeply regret the death of extraordinary Hector Babenco, who brought his immense talent to illuminate the cinema and culture of Brazil.”
SOFIA G. GÓMEZ
cULTURE aND ENTERTAINMENT
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