Obituary: Hector Babenco, director whose tale of two men pushed the frontiers of film

24 July 2016 - 02:00 By The Daily Telegraph

Hector Babenco, who has died aged 70, was best known for the film Kiss of the Spider Woman, for which in 1985 he became the first Latin American director to be Oscar-nominated.

Based on Manuel Puig's novel set in the "dirty war" of repression in Babenco's native Argentina, the film confounded many conventions of cinema. Not only was its narrative dreamlike, and its setting in a prison cell claustrophobic, but its central relationship was one of sexual attraction between two men."My task," said Babenco of the mise en scène, "was to make it fresh and open, dynamic."Raul Julia played a political prisoner, while William Hurt's character - who whiled away the time thinking about dubiously glamorous Nazis - had been arrested for soliciting minors. Yet their performances drew rave reviews, with Hurt going on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was also the first independent production to be nominated for best film, although it lost to Out of Africa.Hector Eduardo Babenco was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on February 7 1946. "My father was a gambler and a liar," he recalled, "but he also told wonderful stories."Hector was a shy boy who found refuge in the cinema, to which he went 10 times a week. He dropped out of school, never went to university and survived by odd jobs such as selling clothes door-to-door.Following a quarrel about art with his father, Babenco left for Spain at 18, in part to avoid military service; he was Jewish and anti-Semitism was rife in the armed forces. He spent the next four years sleeping rough and working as an extra in spaghetti Westerns.In the late 1960s, he returned to Latin America but chose to settle in Brazil, whose multi-racial culture he found more stimulating.He continued to live hand to mouth, hawking encyclopaedias, selling tombstones and taking Polaroid photographs of diners in restaurants. He attributed his directorial interest in outsiders to these experiences."I understand the marginalised," he said, "those who live on the border with death. It took a few years to realise that poverty doesn't imply misery. My perspective comes from a mixture of indignation, surprise and compassion."Babenco's first film, in 1973, was a biography of the racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi.He began to be taken seriously four years later with the story of a celebrated bandit in Rio, Lucio Flavio, which also dealt with police death squads.His breakthrough was Pixote (1981), slang for "small boy", which was nominated for a Golden Globe.After the success of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Babenco was offered his pick of Hollywood projects. That most of these failed to set the box office alight was due mainly to his determination to do things his way."Hector has vision," said Jack Nicholson, "and that comes with a hefty price."In 1986, he and Meryl Streep were directed by Babenco in Ironweed, a Depression-era tale that brought them both Oscar nominations but not big audiences.Babenco was married four times: since 2010 to Brazilian actress Barbara Paz, who survives him with his children.1946-2016..

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