Country: USA
Year: 2025
Duration: 128'
Argentina, 1981. During the Dirty War, Marxist Valentín Arregui Paz is held as a political prisoner and must share a cell with Luis Molina, a gay hairdresser convicted of alleged corruption of a minor. An unlikely bond forms between them through Molina’s stories about Hollywood films, particularly the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, in which the heroine Ingrid Luna kills her victims with a kiss. In this way, both find an imaginary refuge from the horrors of imprisonment.
Biography
film director
Bill Condon
(New York, USA, 1955) is a director, producer, and screenwriter who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film Gods and Monsters (1998). He attended Columbia University, where he earned a degree in philosophy. An essay written for the magazine “Millimeter” brought him to the attention of producer Michael Laughlin, with whom he co-wrote the screenplay for Strange Behavior (1981). The Bedroom Window (1987) marked the beginning of a successful career that led him to direct films such as Kinsey (2004), two installments of the Twilight saga (2011 and 2012), The Fifth Estate (2015), and The Good Liar (2019). His films have received numerous accolades, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe, British Directors Guild Award, and Independent Spirit Award.
FILMOGRAFIA
Sister, Sister (I delitti della palude, 1987), Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (L’inferno nello specchio, 1995), Gods and Monsters (Demoni e dei, 1998), Kinsey (id., 2004), Dreamgirls (id., 2006), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - 1 (id., 2011), Tilda (tv, 2011), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - 2 (id., 2012), The Fifth Estate (Il quinto potere, 2013), Mr Holmes (Mr Holmes - Il mistero del caso irrisolto, 2015), Beauty and the Beast (La bella e la bestia, 2017), The Good Liar (L’inganno perfetto, 2019), Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025).
Declaration
film director
“I don’t think there are that many Broadway shows that should be films. It’s a really, really high bar. I did think Dreamgirls was one of them. And I thought Kiss of the Spider Woman was another, simply because, like Cabaret and Chicago, the lead character is someone who has a very difficult day-to-day experience and separates himself from that through a very rich fantasy life connected to show business. I always felt like it was the unmade third leg of that triptych. The other big thing was, it has taken 50 years for the world to catch up to the novel. The lead character, Molina, says explicitly, “I’m not a homosexual. I have no attraction to homosexual men. I’m a woman, and I like a strong man.” So it’s not trans, but it’s proto-trans. Each of those previous iterations were groundbreaking in their own way, but they had to pull their punches when it came to real issues of gender fluidity and also, frankly, the kiss. So it just felt as if there were huge unexplored aspects of that novel that were worth attacking again.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Bill Condon. SCREENPLAY: Bill Condon, based on the eponymous musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Terrence McNally, which in turn is adapted from Manuel Puig’s novel Kiss of the Spider Woman. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tobias A. Schliessler. FILM EDITING: Brian A. Kates. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Scott Chambliss. COSTUME DESIGN: Colleen Atwood, Christine L. Cantella. MUSIC: Sam Davis. SOUND: Ruy García. CAST: Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Tony Dovolani, Josefina Scaglione, Bruno Bichir, Aline Mayagoitia, Kevin Michael Brennan. PRODUCTION: Van Dean, Santino DeAngelo, Sasha Veneziano for Artists Equity, Mohari Media, Josephson Entertainment, Tom Kirdahy Productions, Nuyorican Productions, 1000 Eyes.
CONTACT: Eagle Pictures info@eaglepictures.com
