When I found this title in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I assumed it was some sort of dark crime or psychological thriller, that is not what it was at all, but I memorised that the leading actor won the Academy Award, so I was always going to watch it. Basically in Brazil, set during the Brazilian military government, in a prison cell are two unlikely cell mates, Valentin Arregui (The Addams Family's Golden Globe nominated Raul Julia) who is imprisoned (and has been tortured) due to his activities on behalf of a leftist revolutionary group, and homosexual Luis Molina (Oscar and BAFTA winning, and Golden Globe nominated William Hurt) who is imprisoned for having sex with an underage boy. Molina passes the time recounting memories from one of his favourite films, a wartime romantic thriller, also a Nazi propaganda film, he weaves the characters into a narrative meant to comfort Arregui and distract him from the harsh realities of political imprisonment and the separation from his lover Marta (Golden Globe nominated Sonia Braga). Through telling him this Molina finds Arregui slowly lessening his defensive side and opening up, as the story unfolds it is obvious that the jailers are poisoning Arregui so he will befriend Molina, who is a spy for Brazilian secret police, they want information obtained to find the revolutionary group's members, if Molina succeeds he will be granted parole. Molina falls in love with Arregui, he eventually responds and they make physical consummation of their love on Molina's last night in prison, he is granted parole in the hopes that his cell mate will reveal information about his contacts when he knows he will be out of prison, Molina first refuses to take a telephone number and message for the comrades when Arregui provides them, but he relents, they share a farewell kiss. The last scenes see Molina calling the number, with a meeting arranged with the revolutionary group, but the secret police have him under surveillance, eventually a gun battle occurs, with Molina shot by the revolutionaries, they assumed he has betrayed him. Molina wanders the streets wounded, the police catch up with him and demand he discloses the telephone number in exchange for them taking to hospital for treatment, he refuses, succumbs to his wounds and dies, the homophobic police chief Pedro (Milton Gonçalves) orders Molina's body be dumped in a rubbish pit and a story fabricated about his death and his involvement with the revolutionary group. Back in the prison Arregui has once again been tortured and is being treated, the doctor, risking his job in the process, injects him with morphine to help him sleep, in his dreams Arregui is able to escape to a tropical island to reunite with Marta. Also starring Sonia Braga as Leni Lamaison and the Spider Woman (of the title, from one of the stories Molina tells) José Lewgoy as Warden, Nuno Leal Maia as Gabriel, Antônio Petrin as Clubfoot and Denise Dummont a Michele. Hurt definitely deserved his Oscar for playing a wonderfully flamboyant gay man, Julia is equally fantastic as his reactionary political prisoner cell mate, together as the pair sharing a cell in a South American jail they really convince you of their growing friendship and further affectionate relationship with each other. The film is all about the two men in their cell and their interactions, mixed with some political subtext, but it also fantastically mixes the harsh squalid reality of prison life with the juxtaposed dream-like monochrome fantasy world imagined by the stories lovingly told by the leading gay character, it is a terrific drama film. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director for Hector Babenco (Ironweed) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, and it was nominated the Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Drama. Very good!
Review of Kiss of the Spider Woman
