The Nazi Film's Role in Kiss of the Spider Woman In Kiss of the Spider Woman Molina uses his memories of classic films as a means of escape. He is particularly attracted to melodramatic films with a strong romantic theme, which is the focus of his reimagining of films. On the one hand, Molina longs to escape the oppression and boredom of his prison cell. He retells the films to Valentine as a means of entertaining them both during the long hours of captivity. For Molina, films function as a form of escape from the social oppression he suffers as a homosexual. In the "NaziFilm" Molina identifies with the female character, demonstrating that the film also represents for him an escape from his designated sex as a man, since he prefers to think of himself as a woman, an idyllic woman. The “NaziFilm” also serves as a parallel plot in the film to help us understand the characters of Molina and Valentin. In the film the heroine Leni Lanison is a French singer madly in love with a German general. Each of these characters is mirrored by the "real" characters. Molina imagines herself to be the heroine and Valentin the charming German general. In the film Leni is part of the underground resistance until she falls in love with the general. It is at this point that she becomes a reluctant warrior in the cause and turns to aid the German. Leni's betrayal of her country for the man she loves foreshadows Molina and Valentin's plight. In our reality, Molina is a reluctant pawn of the prison warden and a police officer in gathering information on Valentin and his cause. Once Molina decides he is in love with Valentin, his allegiances change too and he ends up putting his life on the line and sacrificing it for the cause, just like Leni did on screen. Like Leni in the film, Molina was not a "revolutionary", he simply was in love.