Kiss Of The Spider Woman (City Lights Blu-ray &
DVD-Video)
Picture:
B/B- Sound: B/B- Extras: C+ Film: B-
Oddly
enough one of the earlier films, especially from the independent market,
arriving to Blu-ray is 1985’s Kiss of
the Spider Woman starring William Hurt and Raul Julia. The film quickly begins as we are
transplanted inside a Latin American prison where two men (Hurt and Julia) are
sharing a cell, they are about as opposite as two men can get. Hurt plays a gay window-dresser who is convicted
of a moral charge, while Julia is a left-wing journalist, who is being charged
of certain revolutionary activities and other political agendas. It’s evident from the beginning that in order
to escape their poor circumstances that they share conversation with one
another, but it’s Hurt’s characters affinity for melodramatic films as he
re-enacts them and impersonates the glamorous female leads with sub-verse
political ties. Later on we begin to
understand each character a bit more as the story unfolds and the two men begin
to form a friendship that most would not imagine or would not have happened in
other circumstances.
While the
film has moments of being a bit slow, it develops the characters quite well and
director Hector Babenco’s direction is obvious at times with what he is trying
to accomplish. It’s evident that the
film wants to move ahead a political agenda, but at the same time it wants to
be an emotional character study. The
performances by Hurt and Julia are top-notch and make the film work in ways it
might not have otherwise. All in all
it’s a worthwhile ride for something off the beaten path. The film did get four Oscar nominations and
Hurt won the Academy Award for his daring performance that will surprise
most!
City
Lights Pictures has released the film to Blu-ray, along with a DVD at the same
time, which both share the same supplements.
Technically speaking the performance of the Blu-ray is a bit superior to
the DVD as expected, although both have similar issues as well. While the print is fairly clean and detailed,
there are a few moments of softness as well as some minor grain and a few
artifacts that pop up now and again.
Overall though the Blu-ray fairs better with more definition and better
color fidelity that the DVD just can’t muster.
Both the original 1.0 mono soundtrack is offered on both discs as well
as a new 5.1 remix of the film that works well.
Having both is a good thing indeed for purists as well as
comparison.
The
extras included are a trivia track, a mini-documentary about the films arrival
on Broadway, a documentary on the submissive woman’s role in film, a slide show
discussion on the films transformation from novel to the silver screen, and
finally a photo gallery that includes a whopping 150 photos; all of which make
for a great addition to the film and help bring some background and overall
insight into the films significance.
- Nate Goss
