aimée & jaguar

Film, 1999, 4 stars

Written and Directed: Max Färberböck (from the Erica Fischer novel)

In 1944 the war was all but over, and everyone knew it except the German people. It was only a matter of time before the Nazi regime tumbled, but perhaps it was that very certainty that led the Nazis to step up the atrocities that had being going on for the duration of the war.

This film does a haunting job of presenting a nation on the brink of defeat. While the radios pratter endlessly about the invincibility of the German people, Berlin lies in ruins, a bombed-out shell of the glorious city it had been. Against this backdrop of World War II, two women lived an extraordinary true story upon which this film is loosely based.

Felice (Maria Schrader) is a Jewess posing as a Christian. She's also a lesbian and an active member of the German underground, all very good reasons for her to want to stay out of the way of the Gestapo. She meets Lilly Wust, an exemplary German housewife with four children and a Nazi husband. Lilly is unfaithful, and seemingly quite cold, but it seems that her bahaviour is a cry for help because she is deeply unsatisfied with her life. The sexual awakening she feels through Felice, and the danger of living moment-to-moment in this war-torn city, serves to thaw Lilly out.

Felice's secret identity involves her being a secretary at a German newspaper. In one fascinating scene we see her being forced to take dictation for an anti-semitic piece, and the horror that flashes in her eyes, the disgust she feels with herself and her country, is palpable. She must keep her cover or die, but the scene shows her as a woman of immense pride, which we come to see as Felice's greatest strength, and one of her ultimate failings.

The initial scenes between the two women are perhaps the most interesting. Is Lilly just trying to get her husband's attention? Is Felice just one more notch in her belt? As for Felice, is she just using this conceited, hapless housewife because she's suddenly become homeless and needs the security of it? Or is there something more in this burgeoning passion?

Their relationship blooms. As the Gestapo get closer to discovering Felice, she decides to play it safe and see out the rest of the war with Lilly. Their passion escalates, and the film maintains the perfect level of tension between their love and the risk of discovery. Both the women need the relationship to work, for more reasons than just their emotional involvement in it. The film links the survival of their passion with their actual survival, in a technique designed to heighten the suspense.

Then an odd thing happens. I begin to think that perhaps the women are clinging to their relationship, their happiness, at the expense of what they really should be doing to help end the misery of the war. It feels like Felice is using Lilly as a way to hide from her responsibilities, and that Lilly clings to Felice as a form of protection, rather than out of love. In any case, the love between them begins to sour. Outwardly the film blames this on encroaching Nazi oppressors, but it seems to me to be more because of the shaky foundations of their relationship.

Although this is based in reality (and it seems odd to question the ending of a "true" story), the final third doesn't work quite as well. Once their world begins unravelling so does the tight-knit narrative and direction. I was also puzzled about the voiceover narration. It feels at times as if the narration was done as an afterthought, to try and pull together some of the more vague parts of the plot which even now leave me wondering what certain parts of the story were really about.

All together though, I don't see how you can watch this tremendous love story and not be touched by it somehow. Most of my thoughts about the film's weaknesses came as afterthoughts. While viewing I was both moved and shaken by the courage of these women. The technically brilliant and revealing cinematography (and also the detailed set design) ties the love story together effectively with the horrors of war. The costuming is superb and the entire production exudes a remarkable attention to period detail.

While I was never able to shake a lot of my suspicions about the changeable character of Lilly Wust, I was entranced by the heroic Felice; by her intelligence, her beauty and her passion. Historical film buffs will be delighted by this movie, and true romantics will be inspired by it. Have a supply of tissues on hand, this is a weeper of the highest order.

PS - the below is a wonderful fan edit because the trailer isn’t quite good enough.