The film of the week this time is KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089424/

First of all I want to say that the reason I haven't posted much recently is that I moved into my first apartment recently. Lots to organize and figuring out the internet has been a real hassle. Anyway, lets not dwell on the unpleasant. Kiss of the Spiderwoman is a fantastic film with the late great Raul Julia who many will know as Gomez from the Adams Family. The film is about two men in prison. Luis, played by William Hurt is a homosexual arrested for immoral behavior and Valentin is a political prisoner. Some of the best parts of the film is the banter between Hurt and Julia. They play off each other brilliantly. Even Hurt who has been known to be a tad wooden in some films does a great job here. Raul Julia is always fantastic and here he is just as great.

Luis invents romantic stories that he tells to Valentin to distract him from reality, while Valentin is trying to focus on his current situation. As the film goes on they come to understand and respect each other despite their differences. That has the potential to be a tad cheesy but it is pulled off very well. Valentin is pulled out of prison to be tortured for information because he worked for an anti government group. One aspect of the film that is really interesting is that the romantic story that Luis tells is from a Nazi propaganda film. Luis only cares about the romance aspect of it, but Valentin is repulsed by the concept of listening to a nazi story. After a while though he gets caught up in the story and stops caring about the origins. This a great film that I highly recommend watching. It is currently a theater musical which sounds awful to me but it might be good for all I know.