At the end of the press screening of the musical version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” I regretted two things. One, that I was never able to see Chita Rivera on stage and, two, that the star of this film, Jennifer Lopez did not play Evita Peron in that movie musical.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is based on a 1976 book of the same name (El beso de la mujer araña)  written by Argentine writer and LGBTQ activist Manuel Puig (28 December 1932 – 22 July 1990). Puig was born in General Villegas, Argentina, but died in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Puig had moved to Mexico in 1973.

Puig adapted the novel into stage play in 1983. Allan Baker provided the English-language version of the script and for its world premiere at the Bush Theatre in London, Mark Rylance (Valentín)  and Simon Callow (Molina) starred. In a more recent production (2007), at the Donmar Warehouse, Rupert Evans played Valentín and Will Keen was Molina.

Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Although the novel “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was set in Argentina, the 1985 non-musical film was set Brazil (O Beijo da Mulher Aranha). The military dictatorship in Brazil was established on 1 April 2064 after the Brazilian Armed Forces deposed President Joâo Goulart. Supported by the US government, the dictatorship lasted 21 years, finally ending 15 March 1985.

Director Hector Babenco (7 February 1946 – 13 July 2016) was born in Buenos Aires, but after living in Europe, he moved to São Paulo, Brazil in 1969. His mother was a Polish Jewish immigrant while his father was of Ukrainian Jewish origin.

Takes a film employs a film within a film to tell two stories. The reality of this film world is a prison in which a leftist activist, Valentin Arregui (Raul Julia)  is being held and tortured. His cellmate, Luis Molina (William Hurt) has been imprisoned for “corrupting an underage youth.” Molina attempts to beautify the prison cell with curtains and little niceties that the gruffer Valentin scorns.

Molina escapes the prison by imagining he’s either viewing or a part of the films he loves.  While the novel has Molina talking about several different films, in the film, Molina only speaks about a romantic wartime film.

Valentin recognizes the film has an ulterior motive, saying, “This must have been a Nazi propaganda film done during the war. ”

This doesn’t bother Molina, who dressed in a kimono with mascara and lipstick to feminize his appearance, says,  “I don’t explain my movies, it just ruins the emotion. ” The fictional film is called “Her Real Glory” and takes place in occupied France and involves Leni (Sônia Braga) who has a wartime romance with a German officer. “Her Real Glory” seems to be drawn from the 1945 film “Paris Underground” (also known as “Madame Pimpernel” and based on Etta Shiber’s memoir)  and the 1942 German film “The Great Love” (Die große Liebe).

In the Nazi propaganda film we learn that “Love is a luxury that a spy cannot afford.”

Slowly, we learn that Molina has been intentionally placed with Valentin as a spy. In the end, there’s another film that involves the titular Spider Woman also played by Braga.

While I was never entirely convinced that Hurt’s Molina is actually from Latin America, Hurt’s performance with Julia is frustrating, touching and tender. Because of his size Hurt only projects emotional vulnerability.

Babenco was nominated for a Best Director Oscar, becoming the first Lain American to be nominated in that category. William Hurt won Best Actor.  The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (Leonard Schrader).

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

John Kander and Freb Ebb (8 April 1928 – 11 September 2004) wrote the music with Terrence McNally (3 November 1938 – 24 March 2020) writing the book for the Broadway stage musical that debuted in 1993 on Broadway, but had already been on the West End and Toronto in 1992. On Broadway, the musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman” won Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actor (Brent Carver), Best Actress (Chita Rivera) and Best Featured Actor (Anthony Crivello). It was Rivera’s second Tony and Rivera headed the cast in all three cities.

Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls”) adapted Terrence McNally’s script and directs this film that comes in a two-hours and 8 minutes. The musical production runs two-hours and 30 minutes (with a 15-minute intermission).

Condon structures the movie as two separate realities. While Babenco contrasted color for the prison and black-and-white film to show world Molina’s memories of the Nazi propaganda movie, Condon contrasts the reality by the grim and grayness while the film Molina imagines is almost artificially bright and luxuriously dressed and furnished.

Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna) is a leftist political prisoner. He is tortured but allowed to live because of some information he refuses to give up. Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) moves into his cell bringing with him beaded curtains and pretty bedding along with some other domestic niceties like posters of his favorite films.

Molina’s favorite movie stars Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez) who plays magazine publisher Aurora in the film “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” Aurora lives under a curse. She will have to sacrifice the man she loves. While she flirts with men, Aurora’s main man is Kendall Nesbitt, her closeted editorial assistant.  When she meets Armando (Diego Luna), she resists falling in love with him because of her curse, but eventually, someone will be sacrificed.

Fans of the musical might be disappointed because many of the songs were cut. In order to preserve the contrast between the reality of the prison and the beauty of the movies from Molina’s imagination, almost all of the songs set in the prison have been cut (“Dressing Them Up,” “Over the Wall” and “The Day After That”).  Three new songs were written  for the film by Kander, using existing additional lyrical material by Ebb (“I Will Dance Alone,” “Never You” and “An Everyday Man”).

The weakness of this film is that during the film-with-in-the-film sequences, Luna’s voice can’t match the beauty and command of Lopez or Tonatiuh. Yet the chemistry between Lopez and Luna, Lopez and Tonatiuh and Luna and Tonatiuh creates a powerful love triangle. Tonatiuh has a crushing emotional vulnerability as Molina, that contrasts with the slicker confidence of his Kendall Nesbitt.

Luna’s Armando is the stereotypical handsome future husband from traditional musicals,  but Tonatiuh’s Kendall is a more complex character. Luna’s Valentin, however, transforms from a man who scorns his cellmate Molina to one who loves him despite their differing sexual preferences. Love in a time that hate dominates a country isn’t easy.

The choreography by Sergio Trujillo and Brandon Bieber along with Colleen Atwood’s costume design make the Ingrid Luna movie sequences a delight. An older generation of “Dancing with the Stars” fans should watch for Tony Dovolani who plays the mob boss Johnny Desiderio.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It will be released 10 October 2025. The film is dedicated to Chita (Rivera), Fred (Ebb) and Terrence (McNally). Both the 1985 version and this newer version feature good performances and are well worth seeing, however, the musical version reminds us of the social conscience that musicals can have. Kander and Ebb gave us “Cabaret.” Unfortunately, both “Cabaret” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” are, even in 2025, timely messages about governments and resistance.

Nota Bene:

Die große Liebe premiered in Berlin in 1942 and was the most commercially successful film for the Third Reich.  The film revolves around a Luftwaffe fighter pilot Paul (Viktor Staal) who while in Berlin, meets and falls in love with a Danish singer, Hanna (Sarah Leander). Due to the war, they often just miss seeing each other. When he’s in Berlin, she’s giving a Christmas concert in Paris. Even though Paul asks Hanna to marry him, scheduling is problematic. When Paul is shot down and hospitalized, he and Hanna reunite and Hanna is still willing to marry him as they look toward a bright future in the Third Reich.

Paris Underground

An American woman, Kitty de Mornay (Constance Bennett)  and her English friend Emmeline “Emmy” Quayle (Gracie Fields) are trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade and take over. They rescue British airmen show down in France, smuggling them to where they can cross the English Channel. The two are unwittingly aided by the German Captain Kurt Von Weber who has an interest in the two women, but eventually Von Weber does capture one of them. Both women survive the war. .