Héctor Babenco, 1946-2016

I probably should have mentioned earlier the death of Argentine-born director Héctor Babenco, who died on Wednesday in Brazil at the age of 70.

Babenco apparently didn't direct too many movies, which is part of the reason I missed notice of his death at first. But he was Oscar-nominated for directing Kiss of the Spider Woman, and then would also direct Ironweed, a movie that for me probably seems bigger than it is because the author of the book, William Kennedy, was from Albany, NY, so the local media went nuts with the "local boy makes good" stories when the book and then movie came out. (Kennedy wrote the screenplay to that, and also did the screenplay for The Cotton Club. Apparently he's still alive at 88.)

Babenco also appeared in the movie Before Night Falls, about the gay dissident Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas.