Director: Héctor Babenco
Screenplay: Leonard Schrader
From the novel by: Manuel Puig
Starring: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sônia Braga, José Lewgoy, Milton Gonçalves, Denise Dumont, Miriam Pires, Nuno Leal Maia, Fernando Torres, Patricio Bisso, Herson Capri
Country: United States, Brazil
Running Time: 120 min
Year: 1985
BBFC Certificate: 15
Argentinian author and LGBTQ activist Manuel Puig left his homeland to live in self-imposed exile in the early 1970s, fuelled by the political instability of his country and fearing for his safety. His work at the time, such as The Buenos Aires Affair, was also poorly received and censored, adding to the reasons for his departure.
Three years after leaving Argentina, the self-exiled author wrote perhaps his most famous work, 1976’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, which follows two very different inmates, incarcerated in a Brazilian prison during a military dictatorship.
The 1985 film version, directed by Héctor Babenco from a screenplay by Leonard Schrader, follows Valentin Arregui (Raul Julia), who is imprisoned because of his work for a leftist revolutionary group, and Luis Molina, a gay man who is in prison because he has, in his own words, apparently corrupted underage youth.
In an effort to comfort and distract Valentin from his mistreatment in prison, Luis retells the story of one of his favourite films, which is a wartime romantic thriller but also a Nazi propaganda film, but then uses its characters – and introduces Valentin and his love Marta – to create his own story.
Valentin returns the favour and a large swathe of the film is based purely around the pair’s conversations, their different backgrounds and reasons for being in prison, their different views on life and, despite all of these differences, a friendship is formed.
However, before too long we discover that all isn’t as it seems. Luis, it turns out, is spying on Valentin for the secret police and will be given parole if he can obtain information that will lead to the dissolution of the revolutionary group that Valentin worked for. However, Luis is falling in love with his cellmate.
The film is incredibly gripping; the friendship, tensions and potentially double-crosses playing out alongside a growing love affair between our two leads, shown through the present day in prison, and their lives before imprisonment in flashbacks.
Alongside this we have the film within a film, shot in softer, more muted colours and a pretty gripping little tale in its own life which is quite perceptive about ideologies, why people may follow them, and gives a glimpse into what life may have been like for Puig before he left Argentina.
The acting is uniformly excellent. William Hurt rightly won an Academy Award and a BAFTA for his portrayal of Luis. He leaves his heart and soul on screen and is mesmerising every time he appears. But Raul Julia, a late actor whom I have long admired and whom we lost far too soon at the age of 54 in 1994 following a number of health issues, is also brilliant.
The pair play off each other well and are an incredibly captivating lead duo. Special mention too for Sônia Braga who plays three roles, including the titular Spider Woman, and Valentin’s love Marta, as well as the main character in the film within a film. She is excellent in all three roles.
We spend much of the first two thirds of the film in the prison cell, and it is masterfully crafted with excellent production and costume design, making it feel a very lived-in and real space. The final third becomes almost a man on the run thriller, paving the way for a tragic finale for both of our characters, with a final flight of fancy to leave the audience with some glimmer of hope.
Puig’s book has proven inspirational, not only adapted for this film, but also into an award-winning stage musical in 1992, and as a 2025 musical drama film directed by Bill Condon and starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is an incredible piece of cinema, filled with some wonderful acting and a marvellous film within a film, and is a very perceptive, thought-provoking story that ends with a gut punch that remains in the memory long after the credits have rolled.
Film: 
The Kiss of the Spider Woman is released on dual format 4K UHD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection on 9th February 2026. The picture and sound are both first class. The new 4K digital restoration is sublime, maintaining a very natural and filmic quality throughout, with good colour balance and rich, fine detail. It sounds great too.
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
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
The 4K UHD disc contains the film, with the accompanying Blu-ray also including film and all extras.
The headlining special feature is Tangled Web: Making “Kiss of the Spider Woman”, a feature-length documentary from 2008. It’s a fascinating in-depth look at the making of the film, including a wealth of archival interviews, not least director Babenco, screenwriter Schrader, and actors Hurt, Julia and Sônia Braga. Running for 108 minutes, it is an exhaustive documentary, very well produced and incredibly insightful.
The interview with Suzanne Jill Levine, biographer of author Manuel Puig, sees her delve into the film the adaptation. Running for 24 minutes, it’s a wonderful overview that provides lots of rich detail, delivered in a personal way by Levine. A fascinating extra.
The short program on author Puig runs for nine minutes and is from 2008. It contains a brief overview of the author and the origins of the film adaptation, with archival footage from Argentina where the author grew up and fled in 1973 due to violence in the country. A short but intriguing piece.
The trailer runs for just under three minutes and features some key lines and a text of quotes from a number of reviews.
So, on paper it is a small selection of extras, but each are great, not least the wonderful feature length documentary.
In closing, Criterion have provided an excellent audio-visual presentation for the fantastic and underrated treasure Kiss of the Spider Woman, supplementing it with a small but perfectly formed selection of extras, including a great new 25 minute interview and an outstanding 108 minute archival documentary.
Disc/ package:
