Kiss of the Spider Woman (film)

This article is about the film adaptation of the novel. For the upcoming film adaptation of the musical, see Kiss of the Spider Woman (upcoming film).

Kiss of the Spider Woman
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHéctor Babenco
Screenplay byLeonard Schrader
Based onKiss of the Spider Woman
by Manuel Puig
Produced byDavid Weisman
Starring
CinematographyRodolfo Sánchez
Edited byMauro Alice
Music by
Production
companies
  • FilmDallas Pictures
  • Sugarloaf Films
  • HB Filmes
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 13 May 1985 (1985-05-13) (Cannes)
  • 26 July 1985 (1985-07-26) (United States)
  • 13 March 1986 (1986-03-13) (Brazil)
Running time
121 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United States
  • Brazil
Languages
  • English
  • Portuguese
  • French
  • German
Budget$1.5 million
Box office$17 million[2]

Kiss of the Spider Woman (Portuguese: O Beijo da Mulher Aranha) is a 1985 drama film, based on the 1976 novel of the same title by Argentine writer Manuel Puig. It is directed by Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco from a screenplay by Leonard Schrader, and stars William Hurt, Raul Julia, and Sônia Braga.[3]

Set in a Brazilian prison during the military dictatorship, the film centers on a dialogue between two very different cellmates, a hardened leftist revolutionary (Julia) and an apolitical gay man (Hurt). The story utilizes metafictional and film-within-a-film elements, as the latter regales the former with retellings of an old movie, whose themes mirror those of the characters.

Independently produced by David Weisman and filmed in São Paulo between October 1983 and March 1984, the film premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, where Hurt won the Best Actor award and Babenco was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Released in the United States on July 26, 1985, it received widespread critical acclaim;[4] Hurt won the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and the film received a further three Oscar nominations: for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In 2015, the Brazilian Film Critics Association aka Abraccine voted Kiss of the Spider Woman the 61st greatest Brazilian film of all time, in its list of the 100 best Brazilian films.[5]

  1. ^ "KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 1985-10-21. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  2. ^ Kiss of the Spider Woman at Box Office Mojo Retrieved July 16, 2013
  3. ^ New York Times
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Abraccine organiza ranking dos 100 melhores filmes brasileiros". Abraccine - Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Cinema (in Portuguese). 27 November 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2024.