discrepancies in Spider Woman film

Upon finishing watching The Kiss of the Spider Woman film adaptation, I didn't feel quite satisfied. There were a couple of things that I felt were missing.

First of all, the most apparent difference is the melding of the films Molina discusses into one major film that expands throughout the whole film. It is understandable that including all the six films in the movie would have probably made it tediously long, but I got a sense that the film moved into the affection phase of Molina and Valentin's relationship too quickly. With each film Molina describes, clear parallels can be made between what his feelings and the protagonist he is describing from his films. In the movie, I couldn't really tell Molina's was describing his feelings with the film as its guise.

Another change that really bothered me was the apparent change in Valentin's character. Instead of being a passionate political activist and having studied architecture, he is a journalist in the film. Such a change didn't really make sense, it sort of dulled the oppositions that were made in the novel: Valentin- a realist, Molina- an escapist. Babenco also excluded completely Valentin's pension for studying, a characteristic I felt was key in his character. It demonstrated his connection to the outside world, Valentin's studying was like Molina's films; they were his way of staying in touch with a certain reality and a form of escapism. Because of this, I feel Valentin in the movie is a less developed character in the film.

In the last scene where Valentin is dreaming, a huge part of the dream is missing. Babenco's film basically communicates that Valentin sees Marta and all is well; he technically still loves her and only her. In the novel, however, there is mention to the Spider Woman who is an extension of Molina; Marta even says she isn't jealous because he's never going to see her again. In other words, there is more proof that Valentin does love Molina more in the end in the novel than in the film. Also, the possible allusion to the death in the dream with the mention of being led to a light is omitted completely from the novel, which I feel takes away from the mystery of the novel's end.

In retrospect, despite all these differences, the message in both the novel and the film remains relatively the same. Two opposites come together through escapism and discover things about the other and themselves which leads them to change, and one to ultimately sacrifice themselves: all for love.

PUIG'S NARRATIVE STYLE

I have never read anything quite like Kiss of the Spider Woman; from the first sentence, I was immediately captivated. This pleasant reaction was a result of Manuel Puig's writing techniques.

Firstly, the heavy use of dialogue between Valentin and Molina sort of elminates a main narrator; there is a narrative authority to some extent, as discussed in class, with Molina's dialogue and the excerpts of the prisoner reports dispersed throughout. This choice in writing was refreshing to read because all sort of narrative expectations were thrown out the window and I could concentrate on what the two characters at hand were saying. In certain cases, It was like trying to solve a puzzle. For instance, in order to find out the setting, time and place these two characters lived in, I had to pay close attention to their dialogue as opposed to other books where one relies on the 1st or 3rd person narrator to explain such things. It read like a play or screenplay of sorts; I was glad too see such a method of writing could be translated this seamlessly for a novel.

I also was impressed by Puig's use of the films Molina tells Valentin as a vehicle to express their rawest feelings. Whether Molina is making up the films or reiterating a Hollywood film word for word is not important. As Michael Boccia states in his essay, "when Molina and Valentin embellish the films" they are really "revealing their human desires and needs." Molina and Valentin's love develops perhaps because they were able to get to know each other's most true selves through this artistic form of expression. There were no rules to telling these films, and Molina constructed them in order to reveal his most vulnerable feelings, which in turn, eventually allowed Valentin to do the same. Both these prisoners, literally trapped inside a cell, are able to at least be free metaphorically and discover their true selves through the powerful force of art.

Puig offers a very different and unique love story which is only enhanced by his inventive form of presentation.