{"id":6292,"date":"2026-06-17T08:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:05:41","slug":"kiss-of-the-spider-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/kiss-of-the-spider-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiss of the Spider Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elisa Leonelli<\/p>\n

Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/em><\/a>, written and directed by Bill Condon, starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, and Toniatiuh, is based on the 1993 Broadway musical<\/a>, with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Webb and book by Terrence McNally, and on the 1976 novel by Manuel Puig<\/a>, that had been turned into a movie directed by Hector Babenco in 1985.<\/p>\n

\"\"Released in the United States October 10, 2025, and streaming on Hulu, finally arrives on Italian screens on June 18, 2026, with the title Il bacio della donna ragno<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The novel Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/em> by Argentinian author Manuel Puig was set in 1975 Buenos Aires, where two prisoners share a cell. Molina is in jail for corruption of a minor, but is in fact a spy planted to get information out of his cellmate Valentin, a political revolutionary trying to overthrow the government.<\/p>\n

Bill Condon<\/a> explained why he set the story in 1983.
\n\u201cThis movie being a musical, I wanted it to have the sliver of a happy ending, a ray of light, so that the journey that Molina takes toward political commitment and then sacrificing himself wasn’t entirely for naught. 1983 was when Leopoldo Galtieri<\/a>\u2019s regime had fallen the year before, and finally the Military Junta dictatorship had ended in Argentina. So that’s why I pushed the story forward a few years. And when we filmed those prison scenes in Montevideo, Uruguay, in March 2024, Javier Milei<\/a> had just been elected President of Argentina. There were actors and crew out of Buenos Aires, it was a real mix of Uruguayans and Argentinians, and many people had personal stories to tell in both countries, of cousins, uncles, grandfathers who had suffered under those regimes. So that gave it an extra weight, and we were all very aware, which was really wonderful to see, of why this novel remains so read in those countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/em><\/a>, written and directed in 1985 by Hector Babenco, who was born in Argentina but lived in Brazil, starred Brazilian actress Sonia Braga, Puerto Rican actor Raul Julia and William Hurt, who won an Oscar for his performance as Molina. The story was set in Brazil, a country that had been under a dictatorship for 21 years from 1964 until 1985. Condon described the differences with his movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat movie was absolutely an inspiration. It meant so much to me as a young gay man to see William Hurt at the height of his popularity take on that role, it really was extraordinary, you have no idea, because it was so rare. In 1985 the fact that they got that movie made was groundbreaking. But I was trying to be as faithful as I could to the novel or at least get its essence, and not so much chase what Hector Babenco did. He made a wonderful movie, but it’s very much a Babenco movie, so I put that out of my mind. In his version the movie that Molina narrates to Valentin in prison is not a musical, but a Nazi propaganda film, one of the six movies featured in the novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Condon was writing and shooting his movie before Donald Trump was elected President in November 2024, he stated that his intention was to address the already clear tendency toward a militarized authoritarian government in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because Trump hadn’t been elected yet, he didn’t come out of nowhere. We knew this strain was happening, and you were highly aware of the pitched battle between MAGA and the rest of the country. So that was absolutely at the forefront of my mind. And seeing what is happening here now, troops on the street, masked ICE agents, and all that stuff, it’s chilling. But I don’t think it\u2019s an accident. There’s a movie about Vladimir Putin too (The Wizard of the Kremlin<\/em><\/a> with Jude Law that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2025). So we are reflecting our current reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jennifer Lopez as Ingrid Luna (c) Roadside<\/p><\/div>\n

Jennifer Lopez<\/a> was sent the script by Bill Condon and agreed to star, because she had always wanted to act in a musical, but was also aware of the larger social themes of this story for our times. She obliquely refers to the fact that her 18-year-old daughter Emme prefers to wear masculine clothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo present an updated version of this story is important, because it’s more relevant than ever, during the time of divisiveness that we’ve experienced in the world in the past few years. This is a story about two people who are thrown together, but are so opposite, so different from each other. One is a trans or gay character, the other is a political activist, but they find the humanity in each other and fall in love. It’s really important to have queer representation in movies these days, I see that in my own family and I want other people to see it. In that same way as a little girl I needed to see Rita Moreno in West Side Story<\/em>, because she was Puerto Rican like me and that mattered. It changed the course of my life, it made me realize I could do things that nobody in my family had ever thought to do. Also Bill was very adamant about everybody being Latino in the cast, while the other iterations of this story didn’t have that. And I feel that it\u2019s a really important thing to see that, and for our movie to still feel universal, because anybody can relate to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tonathiu, Diego Luna (c) Roadside<\/p><\/div>\n

Toniathu<\/a>, who was born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents from Mexico, had already played a queer character in the TV series Vida<\/em> (2018-2020) with Melissa Barrera. His latest role what that of a muscular man in the action thriller Carry-On<\/em>, so he had to lose weight to play the slight and effeminate Molina. In real life Tona uses the pronouns they and he for himself, and refers to Molina as a they, not a he or a she. He agreed that presenting this kind of love story is more necessary than ever in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ethos as a performer has always been to allow my body to serve a larger purpose, so with this film we are championing communities and reminding people of the dignity and the values of both the LGBTQ community and the Latino community. When I read the script, it was so beautiful, and Molina was a character that I could really sink my teeth into and allow myself to fully lose myself in. I love being able to transform, and allowing my body and my essence to be used to help create progress and love. Culture changes much faster than politics, and by casting me, the director inadvertently is making a statement. Molina\u2019s passion for movies and their relationship with Valentin is such a necessary story, which unfortunately is becoming more and more relevant today. But that’s the power of cinema and that’s what drives me to sign on to a project and to even lose 45 pounds for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Diego Luna, Jennifer Lopez \u00a9 Roadside<\/p><\/div>\n

Diego Luna<\/a>, who was born in Mexico and has lived both in Los Angeles and Mexico City, had participated in student protests in 1994 at the time of the Presidential elections in Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Mexico and learning about the recent history of Latin America, where there are so many brutal examples of dictatorships, this film means a lot to me. 1994 particularly was a very important year for social movements and for community work in Mexico. So that experience is there in my performance as Valentin. But the most important part of my past that I got to play with here is theater, because to me this movie is a homage to how much film was shot as theater back then, when the dynamic of filming was basically very close to theater. So for me it was beautiful to experience that section of the film, where we shot the musical sequences on sound stages in New York, with Jennifer and Tonatiuh, and the whole group of performers. That is what I grew up watching every day growing up on my family and my home, because my father was a set designer. In this movie we are talking about how film and pop culture can be an escape, but also a mirror that helps you understand reality. And for me that’s my life, basically, that\u2019s why I do what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jennifer Lopez as Spider Woman \u00a9 Roadside<\/p><\/div>\n

Jennifer Lopez described the three characters she plays in Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/em> and the classic Hollywood actresses that inspired her performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m playing Ingrid Luna, the actress who rescues Molina from his reality, and for her we looked at some of Judy Garland’s performances. She is playing Aurora in the musical, so we thought of old Hollywood movie stars, like Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth, and of Lana Turner for the hair.\u00a0 She also plays Spider Woman and for that we looked at Audrey Hepburn. Bill wanted me to perform all the musical numbers in one take, without cuts, while that was done at the times of Cyd Charisse, and I was in a corset, singing and dancing. It was like what Ginger Rogers said, I do everything Fred Astaire does backwards and in heels. That\u2019s the same thing, it hasn’t changed. But those challenges are part of the thrill for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tonatiuh \u00a9 Roadside<\/p><\/div>\n

Toniathu played two characters, Molina who gets transported into Ingrid Luna\u2019s world, because she\u2019s the woman he would like to be, then he played the male actor who performs the musical numbers with Aurora.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we got to do two different films. For the musical I really wanted to refer back to people like Errol Flynn, Montgomery Clift, Gene Kelly; so doing the research I was making sure that not just their essence but the energy and small mannerisms that they had or embodied was there. Then it was really fun to juxtapose that later with Molina. My performance is very different from what William Hurt did in 1985, because both films are showcasing what was needed for their time in the queer community. Our movie is reflecting where we are now and how our understandings of what gender, sexuality, sexual orientation has shifted in our culture. So one of the challenges was how do we pay homage to the original film by Babenco without being anachronistic? How do we absorb it now in 2025 with our new understanding that had a different texture in the 1980s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Bill Condon<\/p><\/div>\n

Bill Condon had written the script for Chicago<\/em> (2002), directed by Rob Marshal from the 1975 musical with music by John Kander<\/a>, lyrics by Fred Ebbs and book by Bob Fosse. He directed two musicals, Dreamgirls<\/em> (2006) about the Supremes, and Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (2017), a live-action version of the 1991 animated Disney movie. So he talked fondly about Kander and how he got his movie produced.<\/p>\n

\u201cKander had composed the music for Cabaret<\/em> (1966) and Chicago<\/em>, and I always felt that Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/em> was the third part of the trilogy. So I went to talk to Kander and Terrence McNally, 10 years ago before he died. But then it took a long time to get the rights to the novel because Manuel Puig had given them to Babenco. When I finally got them three years ago, I told Kander that the only way to make this movie with integrity was for me to write it, and then find the money. So I did that, hoping that Jennifer Lopez would be in it. When I sent her the script, she said yes right away, then Ben Affleck, whom she was married to at the time, was starting his production company with Matt Damon, and he said yes. I still pinch myself as if not believing that it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"At then end of our interviews, a call to action on the part of everyone watching the movie was invoked by director and actors. Toniathu expressed it with these words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will stress that, with everything that we constantly see in the news, we wonder, what is it that I can do? I’m just one person. But this isolationist mentality is what got us here. Every one of us has some actions to take to do something. And especially in a moment where Latinos in general in this country are experiencing massive negative PR, attack after attack after attack, it’s really wonderful to showcase what Latino dignity is and reminding people of the talent and the joy that our culture adds to the United States and to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the article published in Italian in the June print edition of Best Movie<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elisa Leonelli Kiss of the Spider Woman, written and directed by Bill Condon, starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, and Toniatiuh, is based on the 1993 Broadway musical, with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Webb and book by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies-tv"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6292"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6322,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions\/6322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}