Kiss of the Spider Woman | |
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Directed by | Héctor Babenco |
Screenplay by | Leonard Schrader |
Based on | Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig |
Produced by | David Weisman |
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Cinematography | Rodolfo Sánchez |
Edited by | Mauro Alice |
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Running time | 121 minutes[1] |
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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 centres 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]
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