this is my vote for reading Puig's novel, The Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Leni R. figures tangentially, as her name is used for the femme fatale
hero in a Nazi propaganda film much loved for its shmaltz by Molina,
the gay character, and much loathed for its politics by the "straight"
Marxist character, Valentin.
  Puig, I think, makes an elegant argument for our final inability to
1) separate politics and aesthetics, and 2) say that they are absolutely
inseparable.  How's that for walking a line?  Oh, it's a wonderfully
complex and sensitive book (and very different from Babenco's film
adaptation of it).  Check it out!
Susan Crutchfield