Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Aimée & Jaguar (1998)

Director: Max Färberböck

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Berlin, 1943. As bombs fall, the last Jews are tracked down. Felice (Schrader) helps her newspaper boss with another anti-Semitic editorial. He's unaware that she's a Jew and a lesbian. Bravado might be the best protection, but Felice and a group of Jewish girlfriends live on their nerves. This partly explains why she is drawn to Lilly (Köhler), the wife of a Nazi officer. Calling each other by pet names, Aimée and Jaguar, they strive to keep the outside world at bay. The precarious existence of Felice and her pals provides background tension, but the film leaves niggling questions unanswered. There's an imbalance in the casting, too, since the bird-like Schrader carries far more charisma than Köhler's sturdy Aryan housewife. The idea of passion defying the Nazis gives the film (based on a true story) its muted emotional charge, but, all in all, it isn't sharp enough to allow us to relive a fascinating, dangerous relationship through the lovers' eyes.

Author: TJ

Time Out Film Guide


What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Do overs!

Do overs!

After Race to Witch Mountain, what should Disney remake next?

Gray's anatomy

James Gray wants to push buttons—again.

The next big thing?

Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.

Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema

So you think you can dance, comrade?

Puppet master

Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.

Socratic method

Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.

Wander woman

Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.

Oscars

Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.