Directed by Héctor Babenco • 1985 • United States, Brazil
Starring William Hurt, Raúl Juliá, Sônia Braga
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.
Up Next in Directed by Héctor Babenco
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King of the Night
Directed by Héctor Babenco • 1975 • Brazil
Starring Paulo José, Marília Pêra, Vic MilitelloHéctor Babenco’s first feature traces the descent of Tertuliano (Paulo José), a once-promising aspiring lawyer, into a life of decadence and amorality on the bohemian fringes of São Paulo as he falls into...
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Foolish Heart
Directed by Héctor Babenco • 1998 • Brazil, Argentina, France
Starring Miguel Ángel Solá, Maria Luísa Mendonça, Walter QuirozA deeply personal passion project for director Héctor Babenco, this tale of romantic and artistic awakening follows seventeen-year-old Juan (Walter Quiroz), a young man w...
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The Past
Directed by Héctor Babenco • 2007 • Brazil, Argentina
Starring Gael García Bernal, Analía Couceyro, Mariana AnghileriSupercharged with almost operatic drama, Héctor Babenco’s provocative adaptation of a novel by Argentine writer Alan Pauls stars the magnetic Gael García Bernal as Rimini, a tran...
