Elisabeth "Lilly" West, a housewife in 1940s Berlin, seemed like the perfect example of Aryan German womanhood. Beautiful, blonde and blue-eyed, she was married to an officer in the German army and, as the mother of four young sons, held the Bronze Cross of the German Mother, an order created by Hitler to honour those women who provided the Fatherland with large numbers of children. Beneath the surface, however, things were not all they seemed. Lilly's husband Guenther was frequently unfaithful to her and she was unhappy in their marriage. She herself sought consolation in affairs with other men, but happiness continued to elude her until she began a lesbian relationship with a friend named Felice Schragenheim. ("Aimée" was Felice's pet name for Lilly and "Jaguar" Lilly's for Felice).
Felice, who worked as a journalist on a Nazi newspaper, may also have seemed like the ideal German woman, but again she was not everything she seemed. She was, in fact, Jewish and was concealing her identity under a false name. While posing as a loyal Nazi, she was working for the anti-Nazi German Resistance. Following the failure of the attempted anti-Nazi coup on 20th July 1944, Felice was arrested and taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she died. Rather surprisingly, Lilly was not punished; she was evidently able to persuade the authorities that she was not aware of either Felice's Jewish background or her treasonable activities. The Nazi Party strongly disapproved of lesbianism, but unlike male homosexuality it was never made a specific criminal offence, so Lilly could not be prosecuted solely on the basis of her sexual relationship with Felice.
This story was told in a best-selling non-fiction book by the German writer Erica Fischer, later translated into English. I read Fischer's book a few years ago, and found it a very moving one, but somehow Max Färberböck's film version never really comes to life in the same way. I found it cold and uninvolving, an impression not helped by a claustrophobic tone and a dark, sombre visual look. None of the acting performances really stood out. The story of Aimee and Jaguar may have ended tragically, but it was also the story of two people in love, and the film should have been paid as much attention to celebrating that love as to lamenting their tragedy. I felt that Aimee and Jaguar deserved a better film than this. 4/10
Felice, who worked as a journalist on a Nazi newspaper, may also have seemed like the ideal German woman, but again she was not everything she seemed. She was, in fact, Jewish and was concealing her identity under a false name. While posing as a loyal Nazi, she was working for the anti-Nazi German Resistance. Following the failure of the attempted anti-Nazi coup on 20th July 1944, Felice was arrested and taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she died. Rather surprisingly, Lilly was not punished; she was evidently able to persuade the authorities that she was not aware of either Felice's Jewish background or her treasonable activities. The Nazi Party strongly disapproved of lesbianism, but unlike male homosexuality it was never made a specific criminal offence, so Lilly could not be prosecuted solely on the basis of her sexual relationship with Felice.
This story was told in a best-selling non-fiction book by the German writer Erica Fischer, later translated into English. I read Fischer's book a few years ago, and found it a very moving one, but somehow Max Färberböck's film version never really comes to life in the same way. I found it cold and uninvolving, an impression not helped by a claustrophobic tone and a dark, sombre visual look. None of the acting performances really stood out. The story of Aimee and Jaguar may have ended tragically, but it was also the story of two people in love, and the film should have been paid as much attention to celebrating that love as to lamenting their tragedy. I felt that Aimee and Jaguar deserved a better film than this. 4/10