Aimée et Jaguar

Lilly, a mother-of-4, disappointed by her unfaithful huband is eagerly looking for love. - In a war-time Berlin where insanity rules: a murderous Nazi-dictatorship leaving no space for freedom, constant allied bomb attacks destroying and killing. She finally finds love in Felice (brilliant: Maria Schrader), a Jewish girl, part of the Berlin Lesbian scene. Lilly breaks with her husband, despite (or because?) of all the terror around they are having an intense love affair until finally the terror proves to be stronger... All this sounds very made-up but it is a true story. Lilly is still living in Berlin having stayed alone since then. And all this sounds like a kitschy and schmaltzy movie, but thanks to the fact that it is not a Hollywood production it isn't. Much more it is overwhelming and always stays near-to-life. A movie about the huming being's will to be happy despite all insanity. Absolutely recommended!

This wonderful German production, based on fact, tells the story of a lesbian love affair at the height of the war in Berlin, between a Jewish woman concealing her identity from the authorities and a loyal German mother of four whose husband is serving in the army. But the film is exceptional not just for its frankness in presenting the passionate relationship, but for its portrayal of Berliners trying to lead ordinary lives, while their city is under heavy bombardment and is being destroyed before their eyes. And this near-normal background throws into sharp relief the ghastly horror of the Nazi regime, its vain pursuit of total victory, and its fanatical hatred and persecution of Jews.

The acting of principals Maria Schrader as Felice Schragenheim (Jaguar) and Juliane Köhler as Lilly Wust (Aimée) has an integrity and intensity which has almost disappeared from Hollywood, but it never lapses into melodrama. Outstanding in the large supporting cast are Johanna Wokalek as Ilse, a rival with Aimée for Jaguar's love; and Detlev Buck as Aimée's husband, Günther, who manages to elicit our sympathy for his personal predicament, while repelling us with his Nazi arrogance and cloddishness.

A notable feature of the movie is that it reminds us that, like London and Paris, wartime Berlin still had a thriving nightlife, with Beethoven concerts, well dressed women and officers drinking in luxury hotel lounges, and smart receptions. Jaguar and her friends also represent a bohemian fringe of society, dating back to the Weimar period of the 20s and early 30s, that had not been extinguished by the Nazis. These scenes give the film colour and style, features sometimes missing from movies set in time of war.

This is one of those very rare movies in which not only every element - scenario, acting, camerawork, effects, interior and exterior locations, music etc - is almost perfect in itself, but in which they add up to a true work of art. If you have a chance, see it!

The story of "Aimée & Jaguar" is so strange it has to be true. If it were fiction, it would be accused of being utterly unbelievable. But true it is.

The movie is told in flashback from the recollections of an elderly German woman who relives the events in her life during WWII. Married to a Nazi officer who is away fighting on the eastern front, she meets, is courted by, and is seduced by a brash, beautiful lesbian. But not only is this woman a lesbian (this alone could have landed her in a concentration camp), she is also a Jew and a member of the anti-Nazi German underground. And all this in 1943 as Allied bombs begin dropping on the capital of the Third Reich. Yes, this couldn't be fiction.

The movie focuses on the relationship between the two women. It's a complicated relationship, and one that is not fully explored. What motivates the young Jewish woman to pursue the German officer's wife? Isn't there enough danger in her life already? And the hausfrau, was she a closet homosexual all along? Or is her motivation boredom, or the stress of wartime? These issues are not answered satisfactorily.

Another drawback is the strange lack of tension. Any one of a dozen missteps could send them and their friends to tortuous deaths at the hands of the Gestapo. But they don't seem to be all that concerned. I'd be a blithering wreck, but they party on (often with the Nazi Party).

I think these are valid criticisms but "Aimée & Jaguar" is still an interesting, of not odd, movie. It's still worth a rental.

There does exist an expression in the German language that describes this movie perfectly. It's "großes Kino". Literally translated it means "big cinema" and you use it for movies that are really grand: Grand in their structure, grand in emotion and grand in class. If any movie deserves this title then it's this one.

The Plot: Berlin during WWII. We get an insight in the daily life of two complete different women who don't know each other. Lilly is young, married with four kids and because of this can afford a quite pleasant life (as Hitler was fond of mothers with many kids, they got more of everything than other families: more money, more food etc.). So while her husband is somewhere out there fighting the enemy, Lilly occasionally has affairs and while she has her fun with the men, a nanny is taking care of the kids. The other woman, also being quite young, is Felice. Felice is Jewish, works as a journalist for a newspaper and unlike Lilly has to daily cope with the fear of being discovered and transported to a KZ. As if it all were not enough, Felice is lesbian and enjoys life as much as possible in the circle of her (mostly lesbian) friends. Now, one day, Felice by chance sees Lilly in a theatre and almost instantly falls for her. Surprisingly enough Lilly loves her back and they begin an irresistible and passionate affair, which at the time and circumstances back there was like dancing on a volcano…

Of course the film deals with WWII and the holocaust here but the best thing about it is that it's only done on the side. The plot concentrates on the two women, the two different worlds they live in and their feelings towards each other. It's all so intensive and it's not all about two suffering girls who lived in a horrible time and were not allowed to love each other, it's about two strong women with a lust for life who tried not to care too much about the Nazi regime, but to concentrate on seizing the day. After watching it you don't only feel for them, you admire them for having been so strong and courageous. But most of all you get to appreciate love and life again.

A truly great film about a great love in times where this love seemed to be impossible. Based on true events.

This is a beautiful story and a haunting film, set in crumbling Berlin near the end of Germany's second run at world domination. Felice is a young stenographer hiding her Jewish identity and passing stealthily through bombed-out Berlin. She runs with a pack of party-girls, lesbians all, who butterfly their nights away living for the moment in the face of destruction, persecution, and death.

Lilly is a German housewife with four children and a husband on the Russian front. She is introduced, however, as a mistress to a Nazi officer, and the viewer sees immediately that Lilly is simply lost...dutifully serving out her role(s) to the men in her life, yet stricken with a suspicion that love has escaped her.

Then she meets Felice...

The affair transforms both women. Lilly finds love and discovers who she really is, while Felice finds a reason to stop running.

It's easy to forget that bravery in wartime is not reserved solely fo combat soldiers. In these two women, we see courage, hope, and beauty emerge from ruin and desperation. As one of the minor characters points out late in the film, love should be appreciated wherever it can take root---especially when times and situations seem impossibly chaotic.

This director offers an underlying gentleness that makes the movie all the more effective. The performances are passionate and inspired. War news via radio broadcasts is masterfully woven in to frame the film while giving the viewer a sense that time is running out in Berlin. One knock on the film might be that there are too few sympathetic male characters. But, given the setting, maybe that was to be expected.