Vicki Baum, the author of “Grand Hotel,” wrote: “you can live down any number of failures, but you can’t live down a great success.” After witnessing the fall and rise of his novel “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Manuel Puig would agree. Originally released to critical dismissal – “a rather frail little love story” – the book managed to make Puig a celebrity in the gay enclave of New York City. Yet “Kiss of the Spider Woman” had a remarkable afterlife. A play adaptation, co-authored by Puig, became an international success, and led to an Oscar-winning film starring William Hurt and Raul Julia. William Hurt won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
This is the first English-language film by Hector Babenco. Movie deals with the story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. Molina (William Hurt), a homosexual window dresser is serving an eight-year sentence for molesting a young boy, shares the prison cell with Valentin (Raul Julia), a revolutionary who has been arrested for creating labor unrest.
Our realities are based on who we are, what we choose to see, and how we respond to the stimulus and events around us. The two characters–a macho journalist protestor hungry for justice and a gay story-teller hungry for love–are polar opposites on many levels. Sexual. Social. Political. Even their versions of freedom are miles apart, although each are willing to do just about anything to have it.
Molina is an artist, anxious to please, and a lover of fantasy whereas Valentin is ascetic, stern, and a firm believer in the righteousness of revolt against the repressive government. “Enjoy what life offers you,” Molina tells him. “What life offers me is the struggle,” replies the revolutionary. To help pass the time, Molina spins out old movie yarns. One is about a French chanteuse who falls in love with an SS officer, and the second is a tale of tropical romance.
Molina makes a deal with the warden to obtain the names of Valentin’s accomplices in exchange for parole, but now he finds himself falling in love with this “real man.” Reviewing his life, the revolutionary sees his own vulnerability. The two cell mates exchange meanings physically and spiritually.
What I understood after seeing the movie is what it takes to win an Academy Award for the best actor. This unexpectedly beautiful film set in such an abjectly depressing situation in a South American jail in the middle of a revolution, took me to a different level. On a final note, it was superbly acted, except for one thing, and it’s the highest compliment you can give an actor: I totally forgot I was looking at William Hurt and Raul Julia portraying the roles.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
