Sightlines · reception
How Kiss of the Spider Woman was received
1985 · Héctor Babenco · Kiss of the Spider Woman on Sightlines
The arc
A prestige sensation in 1985 — William Hurt won Best Actor at both Cannes and the Oscars, and the film landed a Best Picture nomination as a scrappy independent production. Today it's honored as a queer-cinema landmark but viewed with more complicated eyes, its once-daring casting now a talking point rather than a triumph.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: is Hurt's Oscar-winning Molina a great, humane performance or the origin story of the 'straight actor acclaimed for playing gay' problem?
Its footprint
It kept multiplying: Manuel Puig's novel became this film, then the Kander & Ebb Broadway musical that swept the 1993 Tonys with Chita Rivera, then Bill Condon's 2025 movie musical with Jennifer Lopez — few 80s indies have had that kind of afterlife.
Where it stands
A canonical 80s indie and queer-cinema touchstone that had drifted into 'respected but under-watched' territory until the 2025 remake sent Letterboxd users back to the original.
Did you know? William Hurt became the first performer to win the Best Actor Oscar for playing an openly gay character — and he took Cannes Best Actor for the same role, after Burt Lancaster, originally attached to play Molina, had to bow out following heart surgery.