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Kiss of the Spider Woman
(1985)
 
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Director:
Hector Babenco |
COUNTRY
Brazil/USA |
GENRE
Drama |
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Edderkoppkvinnens kyss |
RUNNING
TIME
120 minutes |
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Producer:
Francisco Ramalho Jr.
David Weisman |
Screenwriter (based on the novel by Manuel Puig):
Leonard
Schrader |
Review
Time has not been kind to this once hailed drama about the friendship
developing between a revolutionary (Raul Julia) and a gay semi drag
queen (William Hurt) in the prison cell they share in Brazil. Prison was
well-known territory for director Hector Babenco at the time (at least
artistically), after he had reaped rave reviews for his film Pixote
about juvenile delinquents and corrupt law enforcement officers four
years earlier. But despite hints of poetic realism, the sets in Kiss
of the Spider Woman feel more like theatre stages than actual prison
premises, and in the midst of recitings of tacky Nazi propaganda films
and the sometimes forced development of Julia and Hurt's friendship,
Babenco's intended dramatic effect must fight hard to make more of an
impression than the somewhat artificial and stagy. The film also has
some dubious moralistic undertones which take away some of its merit:
Hurt seems to grow less gay the more serious the proceedings get. With
that said, William Hurt's performance still is very much impressive. He
is able to insert nuances into an otherwise archetypical portrayal of a
homosexual. And it is he who produces the film's best moments.
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