Kiss of the Spider Woman (Criterion) 01/26 Blu-ray (Rental)

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. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack Alternate uncompressed monaural soundtrack 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