Kiss of the Spider Woman

An instant classic, now celebrating its 30th year, director Hector Babenco’s remarkable film was a sophisticated and high-profile queer triumph in the midst of the conservative 1980s.  In an unspecified Latin American country, two men share a prison cell: one (Raul Julia) incarcerated for his leftist militant activism, the other (William Hurt, in an Oscar-winning performance) for his dalliance with an underage boy.  In close quarters the two slowly find common ground.  Seeking spiritual escape, Hurt’s character enacts scenes from a favorite film, actually a Nazi propaganda piece, evoking the eponymous “spider woman” (fantastically enacted by Sonia Braga) who comes to personify and propel the intensity of the passions that have brought the men to this hellish existence.

Producer: David Weisman.  Director: Hector Babenco.  Screenwriter: Leonard Schrader.  Based on a novel by Manuel Puig.  Cinematographer: Rodolfo Sanchez.  Editor: Mauro Alice.  Cast: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, José Lewgoy, Milton Gonçalves.  35mm, color, 119 min.