Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985 film adaptation.

          

The 1985 film adaptation of Kiss of the Spider woman is not a great one; in fact I completely disliked it. Something is lost in the translation from literature to film, in this film however what is lost is too great to look past. Director Hector Babenco took a risk in bringing the fiction novel to the big screen, as I stated before the novel has a completely different approach at narrating the story from point A to point B with only dialogue. The movie did not convey this method of narration even if for the most part all we saw was the men in the cell talking.

The character of Molina guides the movie in its entirety; in fact the only character that stands out in the film is Molina’s. This was a great fault as both characters in the novel were supposed to be equally as passionate even while being exact opposites. Valentin’s character is too passive and not aggressive enough to convey the image of a revolutionary leader. At times the movie is too theatrical, in other words corny. The actors were too dramatic when the novel was not a dramatic novel. Even so, you should watch the movie just for the sake of watching it the novel is a complicated one to follow, as the use of dialogue is the guiding light in the narrative. Perhaps it is this that kept the movie from being a great one.

Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman. (El beso de la Mujer Araña)

El Beso de la Mujer Arañ, or Kiss of the Spider Woman is a novel by Argentine Manuel Puig. Two convicts, Molina and Valntin develop a relationship of more than just friends while the live out their days in a prison cell. Valentin a political prisoner, who is a romantic revolutionary who we believe, though it is never clarified if he is the leader of a revolutionary group attempting to bring down the current government in place. Molina an openly gay window-dresser is serving a sentence for pedophilia and having intimate relations with a minor. The two men are exact opposites of each other in an interesting contrast between the two. As the story develops so does the men’s relationship and we see a change in both the characters.

The novel on its own has a unique structure, it does not follow any traditional narrative structure and the narrator is not all that clear. Not you’re typical fiction story but nonetheless it creates a world purely through the use of dialogue amongst the characters with no hint as to who is talking or narrating. What the novel does, perhaps with all due intention or just by luck is the manner in which the audience has to take follow the thread of the story closely due to the absents of a dominant character(s) and or narrator.

The footnotes included by Puig are an interesting aspect of the novel. In a way these footnotes along with the analysis of homosexuality in the novel create a fictional story that is not that farfetched as we see with other fiction novels. The reader or audience is given a larger role than in many other works of literature, as he or she has to participate and be active while reading Kiss of the Spider Woman. In a way these footnotes of the novel, help bring some truth or maybe even trivia to the overall story. In closing it is not my favorite novel, but it is a good one with an interesting approach at narrating a fictional story. 

Memorias Del Subdesarrollo’s film adaptation.

Tomás Gutierrez Alea nicknamed “Titón” directed one of the most visionary and influential Cuban films to date. The movie made its début screening in 1968 during a time of political tension between East and West. Titón adapted Edmundo Desnoes novel Memorias del Subdesarrollo to the big screen, the story of a Cuban Aristocrat who after the triumph of the Cuban revolution decides to stay behind as he watches he close ones immigrate out of the island. Sergio, our protagonist is a man of culture, a “pessimist” as he watches on a series of politically driven events unfold. “Esta gran humanidad ha dicho basta y echado a andar… y no parará hasta llegar a Miami."

The story is narrated in part through Sergio’s perspective and his commentary on world affairs of the time and on the Cuban revolution. There are times where the story is narrated ever so briefly through the character of Pablo, Sergio’s close friend who predicts nothing but disasters in regards to the island. Also the character of Elena, a young female who sleeps with Sergio only to accuse him of taking advantage of her, in turn Elena’s family drags this argument all the way to the Cuban judicial system. Once more Sergio’s inner monolog takes is the main basis for the films narration, "yo he visto mucho para ser inocente". Lastly there is Noemí, a young girl Sergio employs to clean up his house. Noemí relationship with Sergio at times can be an intimate one though they appear to be just fantasies of Sergio and not a reality. Even so he treats her as more than a friend as they way the speak to each other is informal.

Memorias del Subdesarrollo, like Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-up is a psychedelic experience, the ending of the film being the best example. As Sergio approaches the camera until he is directly in front of the lens out of focus a voice over starts up, ¿quién eres tu Sergio? tu no eres nadie! Memorisas del Subdesarrollo also has a humorist approach to its social commentary on Cuban society and the revolution. I guess in a way you would have to be of Cuban decent to get these jokes but in the end the movie does a good job at depicting the story of a character who does not belong in the world he lives in. a character that is very much detached and who may not have ever been there.

Memorias Del Subdesarrollo.

“Memorias del subdesarrollo,” a  novel by Cuban author Edmundo Desnoes. The story narrates through a journal, or diary kept by an aristocrat at the triumph of the Cuban Revolution at the very end of 1959. Unlike the rest of his family our protagonist does not leave the island and watches the coming events ‘curios’ of what has happened or is going to happen. In 1966 Edmundo Desnoes published one of the well-known Cuban novels of all time and of his generation of the 1950’s. The focus on the Cuban revolution or the opposition from Miami Cubans was not what drove the story to success; in fact it was the complete opposite. Our protagonist, a Cuban aristocrat who watches in horror as his entire social class vanishes in an exodus and with much hurry. Sergio stays behind not just to feel free like as an individual, but because he senses something unique and irreproducible. This world created by Edmundo Desnoes is one of constant contradictions and questions. The most important aspect of the novel is the way that the novel tells you about the social changes that are happening in a spontaneous way: ‘dialecticamente’

One of the most entertaining events in the story is the event of the cane Sergio acquires. The cane with the head of a dog that he names “Fiddel”, pronounce “Fidel” who Sergio has a rather long conversation with, this event in the story is controversial to say the least and it is a push at censorship. It is here where we see the “subdesarrollo” of the novel, in other words the underdevelopment. The intellectual is done away with in the story, as censorship is the main reason why this is happening. The individual whose reality is based on books and literature is squashed by the revolution. Coincidently it is an independent Cuban director named Miguel Coyula that is currently directing “Memorias del Desarrollo.” I am not clear on the specifications or on the date of release but it is a presumed sequel to “Memorias del subdesarrollo” that takes place in New York instead of Habana Cuba. You can find out more on Miguel Coyula’s movie here www.myspace.com/memoriasdeldesarrollo