One of the most prominent decisions in Hector Babenco's film adaptation of Manuel Puig's novel Kiss of the Spider Woman is the choice to use the fictional Nazi propaganda as the only full film-story that Molina tells to Valentin. This choice does not seem to be solely based on the limitations of time set by feature films as apposed to novels. It would seem Babenco and Schrader (the screenwriter) picked this film over the others in the novel because it does the most. This film, in the novel, serves as a frame for the development of Molina and Valentin's characters. It pulls the most weight when it comes to the surrounding narrative. From the character's reactions to this particular film we learn a great deal about their views of the world.
Molina only sees the Hollywood romance of the picture. All he sees is the starlet singer in soft focus and muted lights and her wonderfully tragic love-- he is oblivious, or at the very least uninterested, in the Nazi propaganda that permeates the film.
Conversely we learn that Valentin cannot see this romance and only sees the politics. He is strangely infuriated by Molina's love of the film. He cannot comprehend how Molina can ignore the film's dark fascist overtones.
Both characters take sides around this film and therefore it does a great deal to shape their individual persona. It is perhaps a matter of efficiency selecting this particular film out of the many described in the novel.
Talking about Manuel Puig!! Maybe the blogg http://www.manuelpuig.blogspot.com will interest you. I posted some interviews he made during 1968 and 1992. All these articles are part of the first multimedia-biography on CD-ROM about Puig: „Manuel Puig: Una aproximación biográfica". Buenos Aires 2008. ISBN 978-987-05-4332-9. Distribution via: http://www.manuelpuig.de
ReplyDeletemil greetings!!