1299 Kiss of the Spider Woman

[Finch]

Featuring indelible performances from Raul Julia and an Academy Award–winning William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a work of radical compassion that boldly expands notions of love, gender, and revolution. In the film—directed by Héctor Babenco following his international breakthrough with Pixote, and adapted from the novel by the iconoclastic writer Manuel Puig—Julia and Hurt play Valentin and Molina, a militant leftist activist and a queer, cinema-obsessed window dresser, imprisoned together under a repressive military dictatorship. The two gradually forge a bond that transforms the way they both understand politics, sexuality, and masculinity. Blending raw realism with Molina’s imaginative escapes into sumptuous movie fantasy, this searing human drama offers a powerful vision of personal liberation embedded within broader political struggle.

Film Info
United States, Brazil
1985
120 minutes
Color/Black and White
1.85:1
English
Spine #1299
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Alternate uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Interview with Suzanne Jill Levine, biographer of Kiss of the Spider Woman author Manuel Puig, about the adaptation
Tangled Web: Making “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (2008), a feature-length documentary
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

[domino harvey]

Heaven forbid they do a bonus about one of the greatest actors of the period in his Oscar winning role.

[beamish14]

Producer David Weisman kept every single rush from this film. It would’ve been nice to get a sample of deleted scenes and alternate takes