Rating: 
Summary: I LOVED it, but is it enough for the general public?
Review: I've been familiar with the story of Aimee and Jaguar for a few years now, yet I've just been able to watch this film on DVD. Unfortunately, after two years of anticipation, I was slightly disappointed.Don't get me wrong--I thought this movie was beautiful, poignant, and suberbly acted. However, I read the book. I feel I knew Lilly better--I knew all along she wasn't the insulated, flaky, unstable housefrau portrayed in this film. I watched the first minutes of this film, with Lilly's sorrowful sexual neediness on display, and I couldn't help but wonder if the general public will realize (before they hate her) that this woman's sexual neediness is rooted in her repressed lesbianism, not in the long absenses of her Nazi husband. Felice was given a sexy Marlene Dietrich flair (wonderfully portrayed by Maria Schrader), but her underground activities should have been emphasized more. I know people who sat through this entire film not realizing that Felice was not only Jewish, but very active in the resistance movement. I think that would have boosted the plot a little, and added to the dynamic of the relationship. That way, after Lilly came out to her husband and declared to Felice and her friends "I'm one of you now", the cold reaction would have been more understandable. Instead, this scene makes Felice look cold and uncaring. To make matters worse, it's never clear if Felice's friends are also Jewish, or just lesbians. Felice's character could have been so rich. Indeed, some of the most emotionally raw scenes in the film involve her secret identity--most notable the scene in which, as a secretary at a Nazi newspaper, she is forced to take dictation for a scathing anti-semetic editorial. While there's some hint that Felice and her group of girlfriends are trying to get papers and arrange to leave Germany, it's not quite emphasized enough that Felice's affair with Lilly seriously impedes that process. The scenes when Lilly and Felice come together (and become AIMEE & JAGUAR)are not disappointing. Their kind of passionate, we-could-die-tomorrow desire is enough to melt any audience member. Lilly's insistance that this relationship defined her life--was indeed what she had been searching for--begs the audiences's forgivness for her borderline bipolar state. I'm sure she is forgiven. If nothing else, this film captures the horror of wartime Berlin as vividly as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN captures Normandy. The bombing raids are filmed against stunning, dramatic red skies and amid the flashes of anti-aircraft fire. Viewers get a good sense of Berlin as a city stubbornly soldiering on in this midst of all this horror. Lesbian romance or not, this film is unrivaled in its realistic portrayal of Berlin in this period. The smallest details--from the costumes to the curtains--contribute to this mastery. Unfortunately, the cinematic mastery of this film is not enough to save the vague plot. For instance, why does Ilse narrate the film? Her character remains on the periphery thought, and she belongs there. Her injected voice leads to confusion about her overall relevance. I actively tried to get swept away in this film, because I believe the storyline is history that can't be told enough, but I too often found myself substituting my prior knowledge for the film's narrative ambiguities. I could easily give this film 5 stars because I feel I have the whole picture, but I fear it will leave most viewers (who haven't read the book) without a clue. True, the DVD has sufficient background information, but that is irrelevant. The film should have, could have, stood alone. And it does not.
Rating: 
Summary: What does true love feel like?
Review: It feels like you feel as you watch this film. I don't care who you are, if you've ever been in love, or been in love and lost it, this film will touch you deeply as it has me, and leave an impression of that touch lingering in your soul for days after. It's so superbly acted, that I don't want to know the actors' real names or see them in other films; they really are Lily and Felice (Aimee & Jaguar) to me. You are brilliantly brought right into Berlin at the height of the Allied's destruction of the city, and for a moment, you nearly hope the bombs don't find their targets! That's how captivated you are by everything about this film. Their love is beautiful, the cinematography is brilliant, and you fall for it all exactly as the filmmaker has wished you to. Bravo! Few films have given it all to me as this one does: high drama, suspense, passion, love, hate, fear, and danger entwined and pure in all of its emotions. Our characters' deepest feelings and values are challenged, as it is so often in real life, but normally to a lesser degree than they are forced to endure by their circumstance. They take on impossible challenges and show us extraordinary strength of character over seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And after all that, you are left without specific answers to some burning questions, that haunt you enough to make you ready to commit yourself to finding these answers yourself! If you see it twice, don't be surprised if you find yourself hoping the plotline of this true story will shift this time just a little more in favor of our heroines.
Romantic and beautiful are the characters, the story, and the tragedy. Pure wonderment! Taking a German language class to be able to understand it in its own language would be the only thing I believe that could make me love it any more than I do! Even my Mom thought it was a beautiful love story--evidence of its universal appeal!
Rating:
Summary: ...rich and complex...
Review: Max Farberbock has brought an amazing story to beautiful life in his first feature film Aimee & Jaguar. Based on the true story of Lilly Wust, a Nazi wife and mother and Felice Schragenheim, a member of the Jewish underground, it is a film of incredible emotion and intensity. A stunningly visual work, it is a gorgeous film with rich and complex performances by Maria Schrader and Juliane Kohler in the lead roles. Nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign film and winner of the Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear, this is a film that cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: ...rich and complex...
Review: Max Farberbock has brought an amazing story to beautiful life in his first feature film Aimee & Jaguar. Based on the true story of Lilly Wust, a Nazi wife and mother and Felice Schragenheim, a member of the Jewish underground, it is a film of incredible emotion and intensity. A stunningly visual work, it is a gorgeous film with rich and complex performances by Maria Schrader and Juliane Kohler in the lead roles. Nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign film and winner of the Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear, this is a film that cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth seeing!
Review: Max Farberbock's first feature, Aimee & Jaguar, builds such a strong opening act that it's almost tragic when things settle into a happy groove. The film, which is stunningly acted by its leads, follows Lilly (Juliane Kohler), a somewhat repressed housewife to an Army solider, and Felice (Maria Schrader), a Jewish lesbian that seems embroiled in some sort of lesbian resistance, as they form a relationship in WWII Berlin. Obviously, Felice must keep her religion secret, but her sexuality is an added burden. She is forced to live a lie on so many levels that when she takes a convenient interest in Lilly (after ending up homeless), you can't help but question her motives. Lilly seems to have never before flirted with the idea that she is a lesbian, and her early scenes show her pursuing affairs with men in an apparent attempt to anger her away-at-war husband. There's a suggestion that her lesbianism is only her latest ploy to gain her husband's attention. For both of them, any subversive act that they can perpetrate becomes a blow to the oppression that the Nazi regime has caused them to endure. The film walks a tightrope here, creating a giddy sense of danger that energizes the film as it piles on reasons why both of these characters need this relationship to work, and it manages to sustain a complex believability for an exceptional length of time. I definitely felt the final half hour of the film became much less interesting, however. What was a startling example of the necessity to manipulate others and disregard their emotions in order to survive during the Holocaust descends into a bit of lesbian wish fulfillment. It's as if we're supposed to cheer these women for doing what they're doing while there's so much evil in their world. I suppose that's a worthy thing to celebrate, but it's hardly an interesting one, especially since the audience knows the circumstances under which the relationship began, and that makes their newfound happiness seem delusional on some level. The film was based on a true story (though I am not sure quite how faithful what we see is to reality) so such complaints might be a bit unjustified, but there's something to be said for knowing when to stop telling your story, be it fiction or nonfiction. As it is, it allows the blame for the relationship's failure to shift to the ever-present bad guys of cinema, the Nazis, despite the extraordinary first ninety minutes of the film that exposed that failure as the result of the relationship's faulty construction.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT movie!
Review: Oh my god, I just bought "Aimee & Jaguar" on dvd never having seen it, just because the back of the case looked interesting! i am soooooooo glad i did, this was one of the most beautiful most moving stories i have ever seen! these 2 women were amazing and the imagery was just great! i recommend this movie to anyone who loves GREAT movies and has an open mind!
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Film
Review: One of the best love stories and the best "lesbian film" that I've ever seen. Haunting. It stayed with me for days. The awards that the actresses, especially Maria Schrader, recieved from the Berlin Film Festival were well deserved.
Rating:
Summary: let's dance dahlink!
Review: Perhaps one of the greatest love stories displayed on the silver screen. Truth is stranger than fiction! The photography and acting is superb. This film takes you into the world of Berlin 1943 with bombs dropping, while two women find love and each other. The story haunts you long after the viewing. What courage and compassion these two women expressed. My warmest gratitude to Lily Wust for offering her story to us. If you are seeking to understand what lesbians in WWII Germany may have been like, with their little references to Marlene D, this is a must see. If you are drawn to true love stories, you can't miss with this one. If you like war stories, it'a all here. If you care to dance amid the bombs, go right ahead and dance!
Rating: 
Summary: Maria Schrader nearly saves this movie
Review: There is a remarkable performance contained within this unremarkable movie. It is given by Maria Schrader whose brilliant portrayal of the revolutionary Felice Schragenheim represents everything this movie lacks: nuance, depth, and earned emotional response. Her outstanding presence leaves one inspired at the capabilities of the human spirit and equally chilled at the human ability to crush it. The film on its own failed to convey what Schrader so effortlessly could. And sadly, Aimee and Jaguar falls into the category of yet another movie with homosexual themes that seems a little too enthralled by its subject matter, and, in turn, neglects to properly develop its movie into exciting cinema. Aimee and Jaguar tells a lesbian love story between a Jewish resistance fighter and a Nazi housefrau during the Holocaust. This combination of ethnic, sexual, and historical intrigue compelled me to see it. I am not sorry I did. A better example of the artistry of filmic acting is seldom found. Really. I can think of only a handful of modern performances that have touched me as much: Dr. Haing S. Ngor in The Killing Fields and Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas being two. We can add Maria Schrader to this list of performers who not only tap into the brain but also the heart and soul of their characters, in turn, giving the audience a memorable, rewarding experience. Schrader captures the shrewd survivalism of Schragenheim's identity as a closeted Jew and lesbian, and also her vulnerability as a regular person caught in horrific circumstances. Schrader, neither Jewish nor a lesbian, handles the character with an empathy unparalleled. The impact of her performance is nearly suffocated by the abundance of irritating supporting characters, tv-melodrama directing, and flash-forward sequences of the characters as senior citizens that are, to put it bluntly, cheesy. Schragenheim's lover, Lily Wust is irritatingly underdeveloped. Certainly the dynamic Felice Schragenheim would have chosen a partner who reflected her strong values and personality. Alas, this portrayal of Lily Wust (both erroneous in writing and performance) fails to convey any traits worthy of desire. Other than the obvious physical attraction and risk-taking inherent in the relationship, Schragenheim's attraction to Lily makes little sense, though Schrader does a remarkable job of compensating for this lapse in situational development by enacting her character's passion and love for Wust with true understanding. Due to the poor filmmaking, we are never truly exposed as to how this character wound up in the state of passion. It is a great tribute to Schrader that we don't wind up caring because her performance is that compelling. I recommend Aimee and Jaguar on the basis that it features a wonderful performance, and does a beautiful tribute to a real woman who clearly had desirous qualities. Too bad then that it is trapped within a movie far beneath its level of brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! (That's all I can say)
Review: This film impressed me from begining to end. It is one of those few films about two women in love that doesn't drag in all the extra baggage that one usually sees (besides the unavoidable things caused by the time setting) It's simply about two women finding each other in a desperate and unsettling time. Jaguar is such a strong character and is portrayed beautifully by Maria Schrader who's performance was flawless. I think the film does a good job of building and conveying the strength of the relationship in the short time it has. The passion and intimacy of the love scenes is brilliant! What works beautifully is the concentration on their story but with an integration of several other issues brought on by World War II. It provides a much different perspective on the war than most people are used to. I recommend getting the DVD so you can see all the extras about the real Aimee and Jaguar. I fell in love with this film right away and have watched it many, many times now. It is one of my favorite movies ever and I can't emphasize enough how much I recommend it to everyone!
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