Jennifer Lopez, outfitted in sparkling, webbed-up gown and sky-high black heels, fought back tears as “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was embraced at Sundance Film Festival with a standing ovation. She told the audience at Park City’s Eccles Theatre that starring in the musical adaptation fulfilled a lifelong dream.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” she said. “The reason I even wanted to be in this business is because my mom would sit me in front of the TV and [‘West Side Story’] would come on once a year. I was mesmerized and was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ This is the first time I actually got to do it. This man made my dream come true.”
She’s referring to director Bill Condon, who has become a preeminent filmmaker for movie musicals, having worked on “Chicago,” “Dreamgirls,” Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” remake and “The Greatest Showman.” This premiere marks Condon’s first return to Sundance since 1998’s period drama “Gods and Monsters,” starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser.
“I came here 27 years ago. The experience of launching that movie here is something I’ll never forget,” he said, adding that “‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ is a movie I started thinking about all those years ago. It’s a movie I’ve wanted to make my entire life.”
“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” set mostly in an Argentinian prison during the “Dirty War,” follows queer window dresser Luis Molina (Tonatiuh), who is serving time for having sex with a man. To escape the horrors of imprisonment, he regales his new cellmate, a political prisoner named Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna), with vivid stories about the cinematic exploits of his favorite screen diva, Ingrid Luna (Lopez).
Tonatiuh, Lopez and Condon at the “Kiss Of The Spider Woman” premiere.
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Lopez and Condon were joined on stage by Tonatiuh, while Luna was unable to attend due to a family emergency. The film, one of the buzziest to debut at this year’s Sundance, is seeking distribution — and several studio and streaming executives were in attendance at the Sunday evening premiere. There were also some Jenny From the Block superfans in the room.
“I love you, J.Lo!” one such enthusiast of the “Selena” and “Maid in Manhattan” star shouted during the post-screening Q&A. Lopez yelled back: “I love you, too!”
This is the second screen adaptation of Manuel Puig’s novel following the acclaimed 1985 movie musical by director Héctor Babenco, which won an Oscar for William Hurt. There’s also a stage version, with music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a book by Terrence McNally, which opened on Broadway in 1993 and landed seven Tony Awards, including best musical and best performances by Chita Rivera, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello.
Though the film overflows with the kind of razzle dazzle to be expected from the Golden Age of the genre, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” also sounds a more urgent political note. While introducing the movie, Condon quoted a line from President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”
“That’s a sentiment I think you’ll see the movie has a different point of view on,” Condon said to loud applause from the packed house. “Crucially, the most important thing is that we have to bridge these differences. There’s a sense in this movie that the only way through is love and kindness.”
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” was first screened for Sundance consideration the day after Trump’s victory, and Condon reveals there was talk about whether to release the film around the election at all. However, the filmmaker and producers decided to move forth as planned.
“It became clear that for years, trans people were being used as the latest victims of the culture war. It did feel as if no matter what happened, this is something we have to live with and it’s not doing to go away,” Condon said. “And again, to me, the promise of the movie is that somehow people can go beyond that and see each other as individuals.
Tonatiuh, in his first major film role, talked about his own response to the story.
“Growing up as a fem, queer Latin kid in a culture that doesn’t necessarily praise these things, I fought tooth and nail to put it in people’s faces,” he said. “But I was told my career would never achieve the lengths I wanted it to because of it. The thing I fought so much to love about myself got stamped out of me.”
That changed when he got the script for “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and read the part of Luis Molina. “When I got this material, I knew this person spiritually. I understood someone who felt like a loser in their own life and [got] to be their own hero by falling in love.”
