A new “American Masters” documentary, “Raul Julia: The World’s a Stage,” which premières on Friday night, takes a wide lens on the actor’s life and career, much of which played out on the New York stage. But bouncing off the walls wasn’t Julia’s only trick. Julia takes a moment, his large eyes sparkling, then lustily tongues himself clean.Ī quarter-century after his death, Julia is probably best remembered as Gomez Addams, from the zippy “Addams Family” film from 1991 and its even funnier sequel, “Addams Family Values.” As Gomez, Julia is a human exclamation point: swashbuckling like Errol Flynn, twirling Anjelica Huston in a tango that literally catches fire. “Kiss me, Kate,” Julia tells Streep, leaning in, and she spits in his face. Their scenes together are the Shakespearean equivalent of Tyson versus Holyfield-they tear into each other, pulling, scratching, speechifying. By the end, though, you’ll be thinking at least as much about Raul Julia, the Puerto Rican dynamo who played Petruchio, her tamer. You’ll sit at a monitor and watch one of the great stage performances by Meryl Streep, as Katherine the shrew, in an unruly strawberry-red wig. Ask for “The Taming of the Shrew,” from the summer of 1978, at the Delacorte. You’ll need an appointment at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. If you have a free afternoon in New York City, go to the Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center, and take the elevator up to the third floor.
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