#1299: BABENCO, Héctor: Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

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BABENCO, Héctor (United States)
Kiss of the Spider Woman [1985]
Spine #1299
Blu-ray


Featuring indelible performances from Raul Julia and an Academy Award–winning William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a work of radical compassion that boldly expands notions of love, gender, and revolution. In the film—directed by Héctor Babenco following his international breakthrough with Pixote, and adapted from the novel by the iconoclastic writer Manuel Puig—Julia and Hurt play Valentin and Molina, a militant leftist activist and a queer, cinema-obsessed window dresser, imprisoned together under a repressive military dictatorship. The two gradually forge a bond that transforms the way they both understand politics, sexuality, and masculinity. Blending raw realism with Molina’s imaginative escapes into sumptuous movie fantasy, this searing human drama offers a powerful vision of personal liberation embedded within broader political struggle.

120 minutes
Monaural
Color/Black and White
1:85:1
Criterion Release 2026

Director/Writer

Héctor Babenco was 39 when he directed Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Other Babenco films in the Collection:

#1047: Pixote (1980)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Commentary

Video tribute

Documentary 1

Documentary 2

Documentary 3

Controversial altered ending

Theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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