Two prisoners. Two different pasts. One love story that keeps them going. Set within the Brazilian military dictatorship, Héctor Babenco’s 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman (adapted by Leonard Schrader, based on Manuel Pieg’s 1976 novel) is about two vastly different cellmates, the apolitical homosexual Luis Molina (William Hurt) and the militant leftist activist Valentin Arregui (Raúl Juliá), keeping a dialogue that grows into a complex bond and friendship that transcends the meaning of love, gender, and revolution. Valentin passes the time in his cell listening to Molina’s recollection of a wartime romantic thriller (that is also a Nazi propaganda film) in which a beautiful woman (Sônia Braga) is conflicted in her love with a Nazi officer. It’s a strange film to be romanticizing about while in captivity (and Valentin often reminds Molina of this), but the embellishment of Molina’s recollection is what keeps the two prisoners going while enduring the harshness of their environment.
William Hurt as Luis Molina in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The Cannes- and Academy Award-winning film works on many levels as a testament to the power of storytelling and its transcendence is seen through its shapeshifting categorization, working at once as a story about survival, then as multiple love stories within one love story, and then, finally, as a tense political thriller.
L-R: Sônia Braga as the Spider Woman and Raúl Juliá as Valentin Arregui in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
In addition to its storytelling, political influences, and central love story, Kiss of the Spider Woman works best within its brilliant characterization of Valentin and Molina. Two vastly different men with different ideologies, Valentin is a hard-edged man jailed for his leftist revolutionary actions and Molina is a feminine man jailed for sexual activity with an underage youth. Raúl Juliá’s (Presumed Innocent) performance of Valentin is one of brilliant repression, a man who keep a stone face to withhold his anxieties, subvert the fear of not knowing when his next torturous (possibly fatal) interrogation will be, and not confronting the pain of being away from his abandoned lover Marta (also played by Braga). The way he navigates these hidden emotions and regrets while interacting with Molina and being beside himself on the other end of the cell is with nothing short of pitch-perfect nuance. Contrasting this internal performance is Hurt (Altered States), who earns every BAFTA, Oscar, and Cannes award he won for the role of Molina. Molina wears his emotions on his sleeve, becoming very melancholic as he reminisces on the disappointing look of his loving mother as he is tried in court and as he speaks on his doomed pipe dream of having a relationship with a heterosexual, married waiter (Nuno Leal Maia). As Valentin berates him, trying to get a violent rise out of him, Molina retreats but never fully backs down as he refuses to give in to baser impulses like violence and anger and defiantly stays true to his optimistic self, as doomed as optimism may be in a place like where they are. The complexity of Molina’s character is what makes Hurt’s performance shine so much. Molina may be feminine, but he is not a weak man. He may seem naively optimistic on the outset, but he has quite a few tantalizing secrets of his own that he holds dear. Molina and Valentin are the perfect inverses of each other as one has a strong exterior while the other carries a strong interior. As they fight, make up, and fight again, we realize that the romanticization of these stories Molina tells is reflective of the union these two share, their opposite natures attracting each other more than keeping them apart. Sônia Braga (Bacurau), here in the film for a good time and not a long time, does triple duty as the aforementioned Spider Woman, Leni in the Nazi propaganda film, and Marta, Valentin’s lover. Earning her Golden Globe nomination, Braga delivers hilarious over-the-top acting in the Nazi film scenes while also delivering powerful understated work as a heartbroken woman in her Marta scene with Valentin. She leaves as much of an entrancing impression on the audience as Hurt and Juliá do in their respective roles.
L-R: Raúl Juliáas Valentin Arregui and William Hurt as Luis Molina in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Making history as the first Brazilian film to be nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a film about the stories we tell ourselves to survive, no matter the embellished details. When Valentin initially questions Molina about the Nazi background of the film he is recollecting, Molina responds “I don’t know [about that stuff]. That’s just the background.” When Valentin pushes further on this criticism when Molina is done weaving his tale, he replies “The love story was fine. Forget about the rest.” Leonard Schrader’s (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters) brilliant script understands this most of all as while the film is centered around political revolution, heartbreaking betrayals, and romantic feelings of antiquated cinema, it’s the love story between Valentin and Molina (whether literal or metaphorical) that matters above all. Babenco’s (Carandiru) direction is nothing short of masterful dexterity and this updated digital restoration from The Criterion Collection further accentuates that point. Babenco’s direction and Rodolfo Sánchez’s (Pixote) brilliant cinematography is seen in a whole new light. The antiquated, gold-tinted look of old school film in the propaganda film scenes is even more stunning in this Blu-ray edition. The terrific contrast between Molina and Valentin in their jail cell — from their costume design to the shadow and lighting of their different sides of the cell — is also seen with a new light in this release. From its opening scene (a closeup of Hurt’s leg as he prances and starts to recollect his memory of his favorite film), Babenco is already clueing his audience in on who the real spider woman is and, with the eventual cut to Valentin, is also telling us who is being spun into the web. The supplemental material with this Criterion is light but impactful; the features include an essay by critic B. Ruby Rich, a 2008 feature-length documentary on the film featuring cast and crew, and an interview with Suzanne Jill Levine, the biographer of iconoclastic writer Manual Puig who wrote the original Spider Woman novel. Inspiring both a stage musical and a recent film adaptation starring Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) and Diego Luna (Book of Life), Kiss of the Spider Woman receives its just due with an upgraded restoration courtesy of Criterion Collection and is a must-have for lovers of complex metafictional dramas.
Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Special Features:
- *NEW* 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Alternate uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Tangled Web: Making “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (2008), a feature-length documentary
- Interview with Suzanne Jill Levine, biographer of Kiss of the Spider Woman author Manuel Puig, about the adaptation
- Short program on Puig
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic B. Ruby Rich
- *NEW* cover by Greg Ruth
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray January 27th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official The Criterion Collection Kiss of the Spider Woman website.
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