Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 9, 2012

Winner of Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Hector Babenco's "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Carlotta Films. The supplemental features on this release include the film's original theatrical trailer, gallery of stills, short featurette about writer Manuel Puig, and a very informative documentary film. In English, with optional French subtitles. Region-Free.

Luis

Most of Kiss of the Spider Woman unfolds in a prison cell shared by two very different men -- Valentin (Raul Julia, The Addams Family), a passionate Marxist revolutionary, and Luis (William Hurt, Body Heat), a homosexual obsessed with cinema. Initially, the two rarely speak. Valentin fantasizes about freedom and making love to his beautiful lover, while Luis spends his time recalling imaginary great films, nearly all of which are about spies, Nazis, and strikingly beautiful women.

To lift their spirits, Luis begins describing the imaginary great films to Valentin, who gradually becomes intrigued by their stories and stars. However, as their interactions expand and their minds begin drifting away from cinema, Luis is compelled to state the obvious and clarify that he and Valentin are indeed very different. Nevertheless, over time, the two men come to realize that they have plenty in common.

When one of the men becomes seriously ill, their relationship is profoundly reset. Another dramatic development then resets it again, and both men begin reassessing their lives, each looking at the past and future from a different angle.

Based on the novel by Manuel Puig, Brazilian director Hector Babenco’s Kiss of the Spider Woman is a very unusual film. For a while, it seems like its focus would be solely on the relationship between two very different men who come to accept each other and their contrasting philosophies of life. Then, it slowly becomes clear that their story is part of a much bigger story.

The narrative does not shy away from various popular stereotypes. However, it does not mishandle them either, which is why the progression of the men’s relationship remains convincing.

A beautiful woman (Sonia Braga, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) has a crucial role in this relationship, but her presence there symbolizes different things. For one of the men, she is a genuine star and the catalyst for his obsession with cinema. For the other, she is the ideal soulmate whom he could not keep.

The bigger story that emerges from Kiss of the Spider Woman is about enduring the ugly reality of the ‘lost decade’, the ‘80s, which crippled Latin America and made many people there feel as disillusioned and miserable as the two men in the prison cell. However, even though politics is prominently featured in it, Kiss of the Spider Woman is not a political film attempting to deliver a big message. It is a borderline absurdist film, with unmisable dark, situational humor, extremely similar to the one that frequently flourished in Soviet cinema.

Cinematographer Rodolfo Sánchez, who also lensed Babenco’s best film, Pixote, gives Kiss of the Spider Woman a handsome, dreamy appearance. The use of light and color in the prison and during the fantasy sequences where the Spider Woman emerges is particularly effective.

Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Hector Babenco's Kiss of the Spider Woman arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Carlotta Films.

I like the high-definition transfer quite a lot. It is not a recent one -- it was certainly not struck during the last 12–18 months -- but its basics are solid. Detail is consistently good, even during the prison sequences where light is often restricted, clarity pleasing, and contrast levels stable. The color scheme also does not disappoint -- the variety of browns, yellows, blues, and grays are well saturated but natural. Obviously, during the fantasy sequences detail, clarity, contrast, and color reproduction differ as these sequences are intended to look much softer (compare screencaptures #7 and 11 to the rest of the screencaptures we have included with the review). Furthermore, there are no traces of problematic denoising or post-production sharpening. Naturally, there is plenty of well resolved light grain throughout the entire film. This said, there are a few tiny flecks that occasionally pop up here and there that should have been removed. But I did not find them distracting at all. To sum it all up, this is a solid presentation of Hector Babenco's film that should please its fans. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English LPCM 2.0, and French LPCM 2.0. For the record, Carlotta Films have provided optional French subtitles for the main feature.

The presence of the two lossless English tracks is a good enough reason to strongly recommend this French release and avoid the very pricey Region-A release of Kiss of the Spider Woman. I personally no longer have the Region-A release in my library precisely because I found the audio to be enormously disappointing. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track opens up the film very well. Nando Carneiro and John Neschling's music score benefits the most, as now the singing and the string solos are far clearer and richer. The dialog is also crisper. However, occasionally some extremely mild background hiss still pops up here and there. Nevertheless, the upgrade in quality here is substantial.

Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Blu-ray

• Galerie Photos - a collection of stills from the film. (3 min, 1080p).

• Bande-annonce - the original theatrical trailer for the film. In English, with optional French subtitles (2 min, PAL).

• Manuel Puig: Les secrets de la femme araignee - Manuel Puig: Secrets of the Spider Woman is a lovely featurette focusing on writer Manuel Puig and the socio-political climate in Argentina before and after he wrote his famous novel. In English, with optional French subtitles. (10 min, PAL).

DVD

• Tangled Web: Making of Kiss of the Spider Woman - this documentary film takes a look at the production history of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Producer David Weisman's comments about Burt Lancaster, who was initially part of the cast, are particularly interesting. Also included are various interviews with William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, Hector Babenco, Manuel Puig, etc. In English, with optional French subtitles. (103 min, PAL).

Kiss of the Spider Woman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you are interested in owning a copy of Hector Babenco's film Kiss of the Spider Woman, I strongly encourage you to consider getting this French Blu-ray release produced by Carlotta Films. It is clearly superior to the U.S. release and, more importantly, Region-Free. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.