Aimee & Jaguar

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The opening film of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999, Aimée & Jaguar drew attention not only for the lesbian love story that it narrates, but equally for the political position of the lovers -- Aimée, the wife of a Nazi officer, and Jaguar, a Jewish journalist. The story is based on the memoirs of Lilly Wust (the Aimée character), who is 85 and still living in Germany. In 1943, as Allied bombers leave Berlin in ruins, Lilly Wust Juliane Köhler earns a Cross of Motherhood for bringing up four children while husband Günther Detlev Buck is away fighting on the eastern front. She leads a bourgeois existence, with occasional love affairs on the side, and the bust of Hitler is a prominent decoration in their flat. When Lilly receives a love letter signed 'Jaguar,' she suspects a male admirer. But it is the self-confident Felice Schragenheim Maria Schrader who initiates this forbidden romance. A passionate love affair begins amidst the bombing raids and the threat of persecution. Madly in love, Lilly wants to divorce her husband, which causes a terrible storm, not just because her lover is a woman, but because she is Jewish and fighting for the Resistance. But nothing stops the love-blind Lilly. The two women make a pact of love and marriage and try to block out the reality of war and persecution; however, the Gestapo soon catches up with them. Aimée & Jaguar is based on Erica Fischer's best-selling book, published in 1994 and translated into eleven languages; the real life Lilly Wust was 80 years old when she told Erica Fischer her story. Maria Schrader and Juliane Köhler shared the Silver Bear for the Best Actress at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival, for their roles in Aimée & Jaguar, while the film received the Teddy Award, given to films dealing with gay and lesbian issues. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitle: Eng
• Features:
  • • Mini-documentary on the making of 'Aimee & Jaguar'
    • Behind-the-scenes footage
    • Cast and crew interviews
    • Photo gallery of the women who inspired the film
    • Trailers

AWARDS

• Berlin International Film Festival

•     Won Silver Bear for Best Actress - 1999 (Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 1999

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Maria Schrader - Felice Schragenheim ("Jaguar")
       Juliane Kohler - Lilly Wust ("Aimee")
       Heike Makatsch - Klaerchen
       Johanna Wokalek - Ilse
       Elisabeth Degen - Lotte
       Detlev Buck - Guenther Wust
       Inge Keller - Lilly (today)
       Kyra Mladeck - Ilse (Today)
       Ulrich Matthes - Eckert
       Peter Weck - Keller, The Editor
       Rosel Zech
       Margit Bendokat
       Jochen Stern
       Hans - Christoph Blumenberg
       Klaus Manchen
       Sarah Camp
       Desiree Nick
       Patrizia Moresco
       Karin Friesecke
       Dani Levy
       Lya Dulitzkaya

• Director:

  Max Färberböck

• Producer:

  Günter Rohrbach, Hanno Huth

• Screenwriter:

  Rona Munro, Max Färberböck

• Book Author:

  Erica Fischer

• Cinematographer:

  Tony Imi

• Composer (Music Score):

  Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

• Editor:

  Barbara Hennings

• Associate Producer:

  Gerhard Halem

• Costume Designer:

  Barbara Baum

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Hubert Bartholomae, Michael Kranz, Fritz Dosch

• First Assistant Director:

  Eva-Maria Schoenecker

• Singer:

  Benjamin Schubert

• Casting:

  Risa Kes

• Artistic Advisor:

  Albrecht Konrad, Uli Hanisch

REVIEW:

• Without its two lead performances, director Max Faberbock's first film might just be another promising debut. But with them, particularly that of Juliane Kohler, the work becomes something far more memorable. Playing a housewife and unenthusiastic mother who indulges in meaningless affairs out of boredom, sexual frustration, and an almost girlish romantic streak while her husband fights for the Nazis on the front, Kohler makes clear the epic journey her character takes from thoughtless Nazi party-liner and male plaything to the lover of a female, Jewish resistance fighter (Maria Schrader). While Faberbock displays a prodigious talent for staging individual scenes, he seems to have little notion of how to string them together, lending his film an often frustrating stop-start quality. But when it does get going, it proves deeply memorable, never more so than in the first love scene between the couple, which captures every bit of the awkwardness, fear, and overwhelming joy of the moment. The deeply felt work of Kohler and Schrader restores a sense of scale to the tragedy of their characters' times. ~ Keith Phipps, Rovi