A review of the 1985 film “Kiss Of The Spider Woman”
Based on the novel by the Argentinian Manuel Puig – a gay man with a passion for cinema – and directed by the Argentinian-born Brazilian Héctor Babenco, this film was set in and largely shot in Brazil, but it was made in the English language and screenwriter Leonard Schrader and the leading actor William Hurt were American.
The main action – essentially a series of conversations – takes place in a high-security prison during a mid-1970s period of dictatorship when two very different characters are forced to share minimum space but maximum time together. One is a sensitive and apolitical gay man (Hurt), while the other is a hardened leftist revolutionary devoted to “the struggle” (Raul Julia). They find periodic psychological escape from their confines when Hurt’s character narrates scenes from a favourite movie set in Nazi-occupied France which, in some respects, mirrors their own situation. This ‘film within a film’ structure is further embellished by use of what is known as metafiction with the wartime film deploying exaggerated acting and unlikely plotting.
If all this sounds a bit surreal (I haven’t even mentioned the Spider Woman), this tale of fantasy and friendship is brilliantly executed with subtle examination of political and gender issues. Hurt gives a thespian masterclass which rightly won him the Best Actor Award at both the Oscars and the BAFTAs.