moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (06/21/85)
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (Brazil/USA, 1985) Director: Hector Babenco Screenwriter: Leonard Schrader, based on the novel _Manuel_Perez_ Cast: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga As many of you know, William Hurt won the best actor's award at Cannes this year in his role as a homosexual prisoner in this film, and after seeing it, I would have to agree. The performance is really wonderfully done, but as to the picture, it has left me with an extremely ambiguous feeling. This is not going to be a long review, as I am not sure there is much I can say about the film. It tells the story of the friendship which grows between a political prisoner in an unnamed South American prison (Julia), and his flamboyant cellmate (Hurt). The title comes from Hurt's character's love of describing a film he saw before being sentenced, about a sultry French femme fatelle who Hurt likes to imagine himself as. The film follows them through a week or two of their imprisonment together, and then Hurt's continuation of the friendship after he is released. As I said before, the acting here is very good; and the story is intersting, if not particularly emotionally involving for me. However, it strikes me as something of a stage adaptation (the sets are pretty static), and I just did not find the characters able to carry my interest through the entire film. The surrealistic air that sometimes pops up is also distracting. I don't think I can recommend this film for the general moviegoer; frankly, I doubt I would have gone to see it had I not been attending the festival. "You can thank the Rock 'n Roll detector for leading you to your doom!" "Thanks!" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA