constant betrayal
Added 6/15/2009
This highly erotic twisting of Berlin has a high point when plotters think they have killed Hitler, but the bomb that went off two meters to Hitler's right did not kill Hitler, and surviving the assassination attempt might have made Hitler stronger by showing how German that kind of triumph can be. One irony, a German soldier who is concerned that his kids be brought up right, probably adds to the suspense about which German soldiers will die if the war keeps going on. I enjoy this kind of thing because I keep hoping it will end, but "forever" seems like a perfect carved in stone tombstone kind of comment in this movie.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Worthwhile Holocaust-themed melodrama
Added 3/14/2009
I have mixed feelings about "Aimee and Jaguar" but more positive than negative. It's based on a true story set in Berlin in 1943. The film however begins in the present as we're introduced to one of the protagonists as an old woman. We then flash back to the war years where we meet Lilly Wust, married with four children, with a German soldier husband who occasionally comes home from the front. Felice is a Jewish lesbian, boldly hiding out with forged identity papers, working for a Nazi newspaper editor (brilliantly played by Peter Weck). Felice's girlfriend Ilse is Lily's household servant. When thrill-seeker Felice spies Lilly for the first time, she's determined to make it with her simply as a game. But after Lilly's marriage falls apart, the two fall in love. Along the way, one of Felice's lesbian friends is shot down in the street by the Gestapo. After about a year and a half, Felice's cover is blown and she's shipped off to a concentration camp where she presumably is killed (in real life, Felice's fate is unknown to this day).
Most of "Aimee and Jaguar" focuses on the relationship between the two lovers. It's a mature look at a budding lesbian relationship and there are some sensitively photographed love scenes. Felice adopts the masculine persona of 'Jaguar' and Lilly is the demure 'Aimee'. Most of the conflict within the relationship is primarily centered on Lilly's confusion about her sexuality, self-worth and decision to involve herself with Felice whose sensitive side is repressed due to her constant fear of being arrested by the Nazis.
While the relationship between the two lovers is at times compelling, it also becomes a little tiresome due to the fact that it's unnecessarily drawn out.
"Aimee and Jaguar" is also a subtle Holocaust-related story, focusing on how ordinary German civilians reacted during the Nazi horror. Not all the Germans are happy with Hitler. In an early scene, Lilly's Nazi lover overhears Lilly's father badmouthing the regime and threatens to turn him in. Others act totally out of self-interest: a woman ends up selling black market food coupons to Felice and her friends inside a bathroom while they're attending a Nazi social function at a hotel. And then there are the hard core Nazis, such as Felice's newspaper editor employer who boasts that the German people are capable of "tremendous feats" despite all the bad news coming in from the war front.
In addition to the intense interplay between Felice and Lilly, there's also some nice tension between Ilse and Felice after Ilse becomes jealous over Felice's newfound interest in Lilly. Less interesting and predictable are the long, drawn out scenes between Lilly and her husband, Gunther, whose excursions from the war front are never explained.
Ultimately, the intensity of the performances of the actresses who play Felice and Lilly make up for the lack of conflict between the principal characters. As a history lesson, "Aimee & Jaguar" is also worth seeing, chronicling the Holocaust from the 'home front' perspective.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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One of the best films ever.
Added 2/24/2009
I love this film for its intrique, ambiance and the wonderful, exceptional actresses who are so compelling in their story. Too, I felt transported to their time. Kohler and Schraeder were phenomenal, as well as the entire cast. I don't tire of watching them. This is near the top of my all-time favs.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Beautiful & Sad
Added 5/30/2008
I must admit that I avoided watching this movie for a very long time, just because of the hype surrounding it. Now, I wish I had not waited so long.
This film stays with you for days and days after you've watched it and makes you want to know more, much more. All about the characters, their thoughts, hopes and fears. It is easy to forget that these women were very young (in ther twenties) when this happened to them. Also, it is a movie, that makes you hold on a little bit tighter to your lovged one at night.
I highly recommend it. And the hype is right...
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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A moving story
Added 11/4/2007
Set in Berlin during 1943-4 and based on a true story, this unusual and moving film tells the story of bored repressed hausfrau Lilly Wust and her unexpected relationship with Felice Schragenheim, a Jewish woman involved in the underground and active in the local lesbian scene. Lilly's husband Günther is away on the Eastern front, and he seems to be a caring devoted husband, the way he visits her several times during the war, yet she doesn't seem to be finding fulfillment either as a wife to him (she has numerous affairs) or as a mother to her four sons (she's won the bronze order of the German Motherhood Cross for having produced this family). Through her babysitter Ilse, she meets Felice, who was going out with Ilse at the beginning of the story. As time goes on, she becomes more and more drawn into Felice's world of lesbianism, unknowing that her lover is also Jewish and in the underground, until finally her journey of self-discovery takes her out of the closet and she starts her affair with Felice, an affair the real-life Lilly considers the greatest love of her life. Felice is so hopelessly in love with Lilly that she several times turns down the chance to escape from Germany. It being set during wartime (the historical period, from the costumes to the air raids, is depicted absolutely stunningly), there are things and people at every turn threatening to derail their happy new home, but the women are so in love that nothing else matters. They had to live intensely, as though every day might be the last, in such circumstances. The final scene is incredibly moving.
As poignant, well-recreated, emotionally powerful, and masterfully-acted as I found the film, however, there were a couple of things that I felt could have made the story even better and stronger. Why, for example, is it being narrated by Ilse, who is only a secondary character? Wouldn't it make more sense to be narrated by Lilly? And as moving and convincing as the love between Lilly and Felice is after they finally get together (the scene of their first night together is esp. powerful and realistic), I just wish there had been a bit more development of it prior to their getting together in that way. What were their motivations for having pursued such a potentially dangerous relationship, particularly since hausfrau Lilly and partygirl Felice don't seem to have a whole lot in common personality-wise? At times it also didn't really seem clear just what Felice's involvement in the underground was, since there wasn't an extraordinary amount of detail to that aspect of the story. It also didn't seem extraordinarily clear as to whether Felice's three friends Ilse, Klara, and Lotte were Jewish as well as lesbian; at first it seemed as though they were both, but as the story wore on it didn't seem so clear. And for being set in wartime Berlin, there did seem to be a rather strange lack of dramatic tension, with everyone knowing that any moment the Gestapo or SS might arrest or kill them for anything and everything they were involved in. Having heard that the book on which it's based clears up a lot of these questions and goes into more detail, I can't wait to read it and get a better-rounded picture of the story. And admittedly, the overall film is so strong, moving, and poignant that those are minor issues that shouldn't detract from one's full enjoyment.
Bonus features are trailers, a mini-documentary, behind the scenes footage (without subtitles), photos of the real-life Felice and Lilly, primary documents (such as the marriage certificate the women wrote for themselves and poems written by Felice), information on what happened to the real-life Lilly and Felice, and interviews with cast and crew.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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constant betrayal
Added 6/15/2009
This highly erotic twisting of Berlin has a high point when plotters think they have killed Hitler, but the bomb that went off two meters to Hitler's right did not kill Hitler, and surviving the assassination attempt might have made Hitler stronger by showing how German that kind of triumph can be. One irony, a German soldier who is concerned that his kids be brought up right, probably adds to the suspense about which German soldiers will die if the war keeps going on. I enjoy this kind of thing because I keep hoping it will end, but "forever" seems like a perfect carved in stone tombstone kind of comment in this movie.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Worthwhile Holocaust-themed melodrama
Added 3/14/2009
I have mixed feelings about "Aimee and Jaguar" but more positive than negative. It's based on a true story set in Berlin in 1943. The film however begins in the present as we're introduced to one of the protagonists as an old woman. We then flash back to the war years where we meet Lilly Wust, married with four children, with a German soldier husband who occasionally comes home from the front. Felice is a Jewish lesbian, boldly hiding out with forged identity papers, working for a Nazi newspaper editor (brilliantly played by Peter Weck). Felice's girlfriend Ilse is Lily's household servant. When thrill-seeker Felice spies Lilly for the first time, she's determined to make it with her simply as a game. But after Lilly's marriage falls apart, the two fall in love. Along the way, one of Felice's lesbian friends is shot down in the street by the Gestapo. After about a year and a half, Felice's cover is blown and she's shipped off to a concentration camp where she presumably is killed (in real life, Felice's fate is unknown to this day).
Most of "Aimee and Jaguar" focuses on the relationship between the two lovers. It's a mature look at a budding lesbian relationship and there are some sensitively photographed love scenes. Felice adopts the masculine persona of 'Jaguar' and Lilly is the demure 'Aimee'. Most of the conflict within the relationship is primarily centered on Lilly's confusion about her sexuality, self-worth and decision to involve herself with Felice whose sensitive side is repressed due to her constant fear of being arrested by the Nazis.
While the relationship between the two lovers is at times compelling, it also becomes a little tiresome due to the fact that it's unnecessarily drawn out.
"Aimee and Jaguar" is also a subtle Holocaust-related story, focusing on how ordinary German civilians reacted during the Nazi horror. Not all the Germans are happy with Hitler. In an early scene, Lilly's Nazi lover overhears Lilly's father badmouthing the regime and threatens to turn him in. Others act totally out of self-interest: a woman ends up selling black market food coupons to Felice and her friends inside a bathroom while they're attending a Nazi social function at a hotel. And then there are the hard core Nazis, such as Felice's newspaper editor employer who boasts that the German people are capable of "tremendous feats" despite all the bad news coming in from the war front.
In addition to the intense interplay between Felice and Lilly, there's also some nice tension between Ilse and Felice after Ilse becomes jealous over Felice's newfound interest in Lilly. Less interesting and predictable are the long, drawn out scenes between Lilly and her husband, Gunther, whose excursions from the war front are never explained.
Ultimately, the intensity of the performances of the actresses who play Felice and Lilly make up for the lack of conflict between the principal characters. As a history lesson, "Aimee & Jaguar" is also worth seeing, chronicling the Holocaust from the 'home front' perspective.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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One of the best films ever.
Added 2/24/2009
I love this film for its intrique, ambiance and the wonderful, exceptional actresses who are so compelling in their story. Too, I felt transported to their time. Kohler and Schraeder were phenomenal, as well as the entire cast. I don't tire of watching them. This is near the top of my all-time favs.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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