I watched Aimee & Jaguar the other day. I've seen it before but for some reason or other, this second viewing was much more affecting. The film, set against the backdrop of a falling Berlin in 1944, tells the story of the beautiful but horribly doomed love affair between the wife of a German soldier (Lily; nicknamed Aimee) and a secretly Jewish secretary working for a Nazi newspaper (Felice; the enigmatic Jaguar). Felice also helps with the Resistance movement - a dangerously precarious life as you can imagine. Exciting times, as she poignantly puts it. She meets the lonely, romance craving, short-sighted housewife Lily at a concert-hall, but it's a brief and impression-less meeting as far as Lily is concerned. Felice however becomes fascinated and as fate would have it, they meet again and become better acquainted - both a little more intrigued by the other, both craving for a chronically absent sense of security. And despite the bombs and the fear, they fall quite helplessly in love.
It's a case of where bombs fall, may love flourish. And despite the impending tragedy, they remain honest human beings who eventually pay the ultimate price for a taste of happiness when happiness was as rare as a food ration card.
The story is beautifully told. It's an affecting tale that's bound to remind us that love comes when it is least expected, or wanted. Juliane Kohler and Maria Schrader, who play Lily and Felice respectively, deliver one of the best performances I have ever seen. In German, no less.
No comments:
Post a Comment