FILM 2254: KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (1985)

TRIVIA: Reportedly, William Hurt and Raul Julia worked for nothing but the payment for their air tickets and hotel bills in Brazil, where the film was shot.

The first independent film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

During rehearsals, the two actors had trouble finding the chemistry they needed for their scenes together. To better understand what each needed from the other's role, William Hurt suggested they try an experiment where they would switch roles, with Hurt as Valentin and Raul Julia as Molina. The role-switching rehearsal went so well that Hurt initially suggested to director Hector Babenco that they should switch parts for the film as well. Obviously, the switch did not occur, but Hurt states that it was a very useful experiment in helping them more fully understand their own characters.

Tensions started early on in the process between William Hurt and Hector Babenco. David Weisman later remarked that Hurt had a wonderful mastery of language and spoke in "great metaphorical ellipses that are hard to follow even if English is your native language." For Babenco it was impossible. He became frustrated by Hurt talking "for hours" and learned to just nod and pretend to agree in order to keep the conversations relatively short.

William Hurt's Best Actor Oscar was the first Academy Award won by an actor for playing an openly gay character. Hurt is also seen in drag in this movie, the Oscar win being a rare occasion in which an Oscar for acting has been won with an actor in drag.

William Hurt and Raul Julia would work all hours, even coming in on Sundays. Later in the process, they went to the studio where the jail set was being constructed. According to Hurt, the crew stayed out of sight and just watched the actors rehearse for four hours, visibly touched that they put so much effort and passion into their work. "I don't know two men who got into each other's souls as thoroughly as these two guys," David Weisman said.

The original Broadway production of the musical "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" opened at the Broadhurst Theater in New York on May 3, 1993, ran for 904 performances and won the 1993 Tony Awards for the Best Musical, Book and Score.

Dan Weisman drove the footage across country to New York to re-cut it and work on sound. There was no insurance and no back-up footage. If something had happened on the road, the film might have been lost.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

I’m making my way through the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. See my blog post about my copy of the book here…

You can buy an updated version (which I will get after I’ve made my way through this edition) here…

I really hope you can come on this journey with me – if you do I’d love to know which films you’ve enjoyed the most!

Find this here…