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The same pattern of behaviour, feelings and emotions prevailed among the majority of fans as nearly 90,000 of them took part in the thrilling action and try to be part of it.

The most vociferous and more extrovert of the mediapersons were the Argentinians compared to the Europeans, and it was the South Americans who had the last laugh when the fourth penalty kick was scored to give their nation the third title.

The anxiety and uncertainty over the final outcome finally led to euphoria with La Albiceleste winning the title adding to the one they won in 1986 and one previous to it in 1978.

Some cried, others hugged fellow countrymen while others went live from the media box and connected themselves with fans back in Argentina through their channels and social media pages.

High on passion, the emotions just followed as the match progressed. The fortunate-fluctuating match saw Lionel Messi of...

Argentine-born Brazil-based director Hector Babenco wasted little time making his mark on the world of cinema. In just his first handful of films he was recognized by the likes of the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Awards, and was an instant crossover hit upon his arrival in Hollywood.

Below, Variety revisits the director’s body of work.

1973 – “O Fabuloso Fittipaidi” Babenco’s feature debut, this documentary covers the life and career of Brazilian formula one racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi from the beginning of his driving career through to the height of his success and international popularity.

1975 – “King of the Night” A Brazilian man recalls his life story in this, Babenco’s fiction debut. A now old Tertuliano recalls the love stories of his youth including with a sickly girl who moved half a world away, a prostitute and the three daughters of his mother’s friend.

1977 – “Lúcio Flávio” Babenco’s...

The September 2020 lineup of The Criterion Collection has been unveiled, and it’s a packed one. Leading the list is Claire Denis’s masterpiece Beau travail, which has finally received a new 4K digital restoration and features a conversation between the director and Barry Jenkins, and much more.

The third edition of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is also getting a release, featuring films from Brazil (Pixote), Cuba (Lucía), Indonesia (After the Curfew), Iran (Downpour), Mauritania (Soleil Ô), and Mexico (Dos monjes). David Lynch’s second feature The Elephant Man will get the Criterion treatment as well with a new 4K restoration, plus a special feature lineup featuring Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna reading from their book Room to Dream.

The full-length, four-hour restored cut of Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli will also be arriving in September. Lastly, a pair of crime drama classics from Jules Dassin...

Reaching for the Moon director Bruno Barreto: "Héctor’s greatest film 'Pixote'. Poetry and violence fill the screen in a ruthless way." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Héctor Babenco died on July 13, 2016. His adaptation of Manuel Puig's Kiss Of The Spider Woman, screenplay Leonard Schrader, starring Raúl Juliá, William Hurt and Sônia Braga, received four Oscar nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay with Hurt winning Best Actor.

Tom Waits was in two of Babenco's films, William Kennedy's Ironweed, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep (both Oscar nominated) and the adaptation of Peter Matthiessen's At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, screenplay by Babenco, Jean-Claude Carrière and Vincent Patrick, starring Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Kathy Bates.

"One of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema - Fernando Ramos da Silva (Pixote) is nursed by Marília Pêra (the...

Marília Pêra: Actress starred in Brazilian movie classic 'Pixote.' Marília Pêra: Brazilian film, TV and stage star Remembering Brazilian stage, television, and film star Marília Pêra, whose acting and singing career spanned more than five decades. Pêra died of lung cancer on Dec. 5, '15, in Rio de Janeiro. Born Marília Soares Pêra on Jan. 22, 1943, in Rio, she was 72 years old. 'Pixote' prostitute Internationally, Marília Pêra is best known as the loud, vulgar prostitute Sueli, who becomes acquainted with São Paulo street kid Fernando Ramos da Silva in Hector Babenco's well-received social drama Pixote / Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981),[1] a fierce indictment of Brazilian society's utter disregard for its disadvantaged members. In one pivotal – and widely talked about scene – she lets the titular character (da Silva, at the time 12 years old)[2] suckle her breast. In another, she pulls down her panties and sits in...

Marília Pêra: Actress starred in Brazilian movie classic 'Pixote.' Marília Pêra: Brazilian star and National Board of Review Best Actress winner dead at 72 This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Actress Marília Pêra, a top Brazilian stage, television, and film star whose acting and singing career spanned more than five decades, died of lung cancer on Dec. 5, '15, in Rio de Janeiro. Pêra (born on Jan. 22, 1943, in Rio de Janeiro) was 72 years old. 'Pixote' prostitute Internationally, Marília Pêra is best known as the loud, vulgar prostitute who becomes acquainted with São Paulo street kid Fernando Ramos da Silva – who suckles her breast in one pivotal scene – in Hector Babenco's well-regarded social drama Pixote, a fierce indictment of Brazilian society's utter disregard for its disadvantaged citizens. Although Pêra's screen time is relatively brief, she made enough of an impact to be...

I was a sceptic; I thought it could not be done. I did not believe that London could host such an important global event, let alone pull it off with such grandiose confidence. But now the Olympics are over and to be honest, I don’t want it to end. Particularly considering my last images may be that of Jessie J ruining Queen, or Liam Gallagher proving he needs Noel. But with Britain standing 3rd in the medal rankings, we can be proud of our athletes’ efforts. Whether it was handball, hockey or dressage, my eyes were opened to the magic of the Olympics and I’m sad to see them go. So why not cling on for a little bit longer and join me as I attempt to blur the realms of Film and the Summer Olympics.

I’m sure you read part 1 and part 2 of the Film Olympics,...

Pixote: a Lei do Mais Fraco (Original Release Date: 5 May 1981)

Hector Babenco's Pixote is a movie about kids trying to survive in a world that doesn't seem to want to let them.  Outside of a documentary short like Ciro Durán's Gamín, my guess is that era reviews didn't have much to compare Pixote to beyond Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados or Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. I'd also guess that not all of these comparisons were flattering. Babenco's direction here lacks the visual punch of Buñuel's, and his characters are nowhere near as well-formed as Dickens's. With any Buñuel comparison, one must contend a sophistication that, to this day, leads people to argue over how much of the work is earnest, and how much of it is ironic or parodic. (This excludes film students.  I'd say film students still love to debate whether Las Hurdes is a...

A champion of the film might respond to the last point by saying that's the point.  This champion might go on to say  Babenco doesn't fail to reach any sort of visual punch or character development goal because he doesn't aim for them. And it's true that Babenco would go on to show his versatility as a director with movies such as Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ironweed. Here, he has a diffent aim.  His focus is on achieving what film critics usually classify as neorealism (simply put, the attempt to achieve authenticity). It might be more accurate to call Pixote neo-Naturalist (meaning it attempts to portray the authentic while also imposing a political [usually leftist] agenda), though, as the aggressiveness of its look-how-bad-things-are-on-the-streets-of-Brazil agenda blows the air of authentic neorealism is supposed to observe out the window. (I say this knowing full well how easy it is for me to...