Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

An Exercise In Nonsense

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The first indie movie to be Oscar nominated for the Best Movie.A gay and a political prisoner are in a prison. Gay narrates the story of an imaginary movie to the other, in spite his bad interest. He narrates the stories of two different movies mixed with his own life story. The story narration soon becomes a medicine for their loneliness, sadness and pain.To create a beautiful movie within the limitations of space, and budget is almost impossible. Only a creative director can make it possible.William Hurt has given one his best character of his career. As the movie was running out of budget, he refused to receive the pay. He received the Academy Award for the best Actor for his role.

This is in the top drawer of movies ever made to date. It is flawless, a work of art in which the whole canvas is filled with colour and richness, and the true meaning of the movie gradually unfolds through a harrowing course to a powerful, moving finale. Acting and direction are all superb, and in my opinion the placing of "the spider woman" as the central icon of the movie is sheer genius, made complete by the casting of Sonia Braga, a unique beauty. The final scene with the death of William Hurt's character, the unfolding of the last petal, reaches out and grabs our heart, not unlike the final words of "Chinatown" when Nicholson's sidekick takes him aside with "Forget it Boss, its Chinatown".

I had this movie with me for a long time but I just wasn't really attracted by its name or poster whatever. I watched it today and was I glad I did. Those who hate this film , they misunderstand it as being a disappointment in the screenplay but I guess they don't understand that it's a William Hurt centric film as Luis Molina as a homosexual guy having a persona of a woman(his crying and giggle as a delicate woman is terrific) imprisoned and forms an unlikely friendship with his cell-mate. I love Taxi Driver for its character study and this film is not far behind. A well made character study. Must watch for those who crave for performances.

"Kiss of the Spider Woman" is not your typical film. Similar to the novel of the same name which was banned in Buenos Aires for many years, "Spider Woman" is a non-linear story which begins as a character study of two polar opposites who are reluctant prison-mates in a Brazilian prison. William Hurt offers a stellar performance for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor as Molina, a troubled homosexual who also exhibits transsexual tendencies. His prison-mate is Valentin, a journalist who entered into an underground political movement and was incarcerated as a political prison. By contrast, Molina's crime was engaging in a sexual relationship with a boy.The film begins with Hurt's voice-over as Molina while the camera pans above the hideous accommodations of the prison cell. The voice describes a character and a scene from an old romantic European movie probably made in the 1930's. For emphasis, Molina donning a decorated sheet drapes a towel over his head, re-enacting the scene of the heroine putting on her towel after a bath like a turban. The film then cuts to the actual film being described showing a dark-haired actress who appears like a cross between Gloria Swanson and Marlene Dietrich. We are now in the middle of a bygone era of glamorous film. The film in the present-moment is in color while the movie being described is in black and white, often using soft focuses and soft lighting for romantic effect. On several occasions, the present-moment story is halted and the older film is shown on-screen. One of the interesting contrasts is how the older movie exhibits plush settings, beautiful costumes, and attractive leads. The real setting of the prison is damp, dirty and just about as unromantic as a slimy villain.During different moments, Valentin snaps at Molina, occasionally puzzled and sometimes infuriated with Molina's simplistic view of reality which seems caught up in these old movies. At one point during one of Molina's movie descriptions, Valentin realizes the movie is some kind of Nazi propaganda film. There are resisters to the Nazi regime who are portrayed as less-than-human conniving degenerates. However, Molina is oblivious to this aspect, simply caught up with the heroine and her lover, Werner, a member of the Nazi high command. Molina cares nothing about the film's rhetoric but only the romantic interests and identifies strongly with the female lead. Several times he admonishes Valentin for "ruining the moment" with his political talk. One of the elements which makes the story interesting is the parallel between Valentin's predicament as a political prisoner and the film described by Molina which has fascist overtones.Much of the film is about the relationship between the prison-mates as much as a character study. Occasionally their relationship is strained and escalates into near-violent confrontation as Valentin finds superficiality with his prison-mate who is constantly moving and gesturing like the opposite sex. At one point, Valentin rages at him "You sound just like a...!" to which Molina responds "Say it, just like a woman." But over time, a strange friendship of mutual trust and respect evolves between the two men, and Valentin finds there is more to Molina than at first meets the eye.A very different and interesting film with absolute first-rate performances by the two leads but not for all tastes and certainly not for those uninterested in material which explores homosexuality. Part of the film's rhetoric is about showing aspects of homosexual sensibility. Valentin begins to learn and at one point appreciate his prison-mate's sexual dilemma. Part of Molina's ultimate quandary is that he is more than a homosexual: he feels much like a member of the female sex and longs for a "real man", not just a homosexual male. But "real men", by Molina's definition, want real women, and he can never satisfy this desire. So he escapes into romantic films and pretends he is the star.