Kiss of the Spider Woman
In analyzing the film Kiss Of The Spider Woman by Hector Babenco, the first thing I noticed was how the two cellmates in South America, Molina and Valentin were two very different people; in fact, perfect opposites. Molina is a homosexual who has been imprisoned for sexual offenses, while Valentin is a political prisoner, meaning that he is part of a political regime that is seemingly a part of a terrorist group against the government of South America. We know this when he speaks of Marta, "a middle class woman, who has it all", which indicates that he himself is a peasant or of low class status that is part of a political group striving to gain rights and equality. Valentin is tortured by authorities and is even given food that has been poisoned in an attempt to gain information about othe
Molina tries to help, but is eventually killed. For example, Valentin calls Molina a "faggot" repeatedly as if he is strongly opposed to his 'kind' of people, but gradually becomes accustom to his kindness and helpfulness and begins to see him as a human, rather than something completely different from himself. These authorities get Molina involved as an inside source to get Valentin to slip up. r revolutionaries in his political group. At this time, Latin America is still trying discover itself as a unit, while different political groups are constantly bombarding with their own views and ideas. In short, what seems to be a film about how two very different people come together in times of struggle, turns out to be a film about gaining individual freedom. However, while prying into Valentin's life, Molina grows deeply affectionate of him and chooses not to help in such a scheme. Afterwards, Valentin gives him a phone number to call to help his political group. Babenco does not seem to have any biases when filming this movie, other than the representation of Latin American men, such as Valentin as being poor looking with a scruffy complexion, compared to the other, so called "white Latin American" in the character of Molina, who is always appearing to be clean and well kept. Though the film's usefulness in describing the context of Latin America is rather hard to distinguish, we do however see the struggle that most Latin Americans went through in trying to find their place in a society that was made up of a culmination of people striving to gain freedom and independence. I learned that Latin America has problems with political groups forming against governing regimes and go through extremes such as interrogating group members like Valentin to gain information to help overthrow them. In the next scene we see Valentin in a hospital after he has been badly beaten and he is thinking about the one thing that gives him strength to survive, Marta. On the other hand, I have learned how these political group members have a determined loyalty towards their fellow group members, but are subject to change their perspectives about other people. Due to an agreement that Molina had made with the authorities, he is released on parole, but not after he and Valentin become physically intimate drawing the two even closer.
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Hector Babenco,
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,
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