Law of Desire (1987)

Pablo and Tina have complicated sexual lives. Pablo writes and directs plays and films; he's gay and deeply in love with Juan, a young man who won't reply to Pablo's affection or letters. Pablo's sibling Tina is a transsexual, angry at men, raising Ada, and trying to make it as an actress. Pablo takes up with Antonio, a youth who becomes jealous of Pablo's love for Juan. Antonio seeks out Juan, and violence leads to Pablo's grief and a temporary loss of memory. When memory returns, he learns that Antonio has taken up with Tina. In horror, he hurries to Tina's rescue and must face Antonio and his desire. AUDIO IN SPANISH, NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES. Product Description

A Tragic Love Story and Foreign Film

Law of Desire [La Ley Del Deseo] is by far the most memorable foreign film I have ever seen. In part, because I was sitting in a bubble (a sterile room with filtered and purified air) with my partner of 4 1/2 years who was undergoing salvage chemotherapy for a high-grade level 5 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I was forced into watching this movie on a television and VCR I had taken to the hospital!

This Spanish movie, which stars among others Antonio Banderas, is truly a tragic love story of the character played by Antonio Banderas' obsession for another man who he loves deeply. The movie has bizarre twists in a love quadrangle that keeps the brow raised on many occasions, and at the end, where Antonio's love is holding him in his arms and sobbing that tear-jerking sob that comes from the soul, my partner called out to me and said "I will always love you, okay?" and had stopped breathing and passed away which is why this movie is truly embedded in me forever.

An excellent drama, but be prepared with lots of tissue. August 12, 2007

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