Intertextualidades, símbolos e mitos entre o romance Mygale e o filme A pele que habito

The award-winning and controversial movie by Pedro Almodóvar “The skin I live” (2011) is an adaptation of Mygale’s novel (1984), the French writer Thierry Jonquet (1954-2009), translated into Portuguese in 2005 as Tarântula. It is a horror story, full of suspense, in which a renowned surgeon, Robert Ledgard, played by Antonio Banderas, switches, without any scruples, the sex of the young Vincent. What it shown to the viewer since the first images of the movie is, therefore, Vicente/Vera in her new and perfect female body. Flashbacks clarify during the movie the events that culminated in the opening scene that is presented to us, surprising us and, of course, shocking us. References to myths and symbols can be noticed in the movie. They bring with them, to be recognized by the viewer, issues related to the creation or metamorphosis, among others, as the Pygmalion and Galatea myth, which binds to artistic creation. Artistic metamorphosis operated equally by the filmmaker in his modern version of the doctor and the monster, for example, but, especially, in the rereading of the Jonquet’s novel. This study seeks to highlight some of the major myths and symbols inserted in Almódovar’s movie and what interpretations such insertions may ensue.