HPPUB MOVIE REVIEW of Aimee and Jaguar

Title: Aimee and Jaguar

Release Date: 1999

Nationality and Language: Germany

Running time: about 126 Minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Distributor and Production Company: TNK/Senator

Director; Writer:Max Farnerbock

Producer:

Cast: Maria Schrader, Juliane Koehler, Heike Makatsch, Joanna Wokalek

Technical:

Relevance to HPPUB site:

Review: This is a good place to mention another, in fact bigger film about gays living in Nazi Germany. This film is Aimee and Jaguar, TNK/Senator films, in German (1999), 126 minutes, directed by Max Farberbock, starring Maria Schrader, Juliane Koehler, Heike Makatsch, and Joanna Wokalek, the opening film at the Berlin film festival. A chilling moment occurs when Felice tells her female lover “Ich bin Juden,” and another one when her husband catches here: wife and kids and “morals” were all he had to live for (and this attitudes sums up a lot of “homophobia.” Felice gets away with her double life, working for a Nazi newspaper and for the Jewish underground, for a long time, and daily life for Germans even in 1944 Berlin seems relatively “normal” even if the culture is monolithic to the point of monotony. This film chooses to leave her final journey to the camps to the imagination, since the true story of what happened to her subsequently is not known. The film is “big,” completely with Dolby Digital, yet rather myopic and focused. Outside of a few bombing scenes and radio broadcasts, there is not a great sense of the history that is burning around them. Maybe that is a point: I wonder how well the average Gentile German really got what was going on (and how much freedom had been lost), until it was much too late.

Gentile Germany really got what was going on (and how much freedom had been lost), until it was much too late.

Related reviews: Bent

Return to hppub movies

Return to home page

Email me at Jboushka@aol.com