Storytelling in Aimee & Jaguar
Film and Book About Lesbian Love Affair in War-torn Berlin
When comparing the film and book versions of the true story of war-torn lesbian lovers, the film is the clear winner.
The film Aimee & Jaguar presents a more balanced view of the two central characters portrayed in the best-selling book about a secret love affair. In Berlin 1943, the Gestapo kills or deports Jews from the city, which is under attack from the Allies, yet Lilly Wust (married to a Nazi and the mother of four sons) begins a dangerous friendship and sexual relationship with Felice Schragenheim, a young Jewish woman.
Fifty years later, Lilly (Aimee) reveals her story to journalist Erica Fischer about her two-year effort to save Felice (Jaguar) from deportation. The book and film (directed by Max Farberbock and released on DVD in 2001) received numerous awards, and when combined present a thorough portrait of the couple. The film, however, delves much deeper into storytelling and character development.
Storytelling in Aimee & Jaguar
Although in the book, most of Felice’s persona is inferred from her poetry, letters, and other people’s remembrances of her, it comes through clearly in the film. The more balanced presentation of the two women in the film rather than the lopsided perspectives of Lilly in the book, make the film more enjoyable and realistic. The film’s portrayal of Felice is necessarily fictionalized; Lilly’s remembrances, though based on the truth, seem fictionalized from her faulty memory and emotional needs.
The film, starring Maria Schrader (Felice) and Juliane Kohler (Lilly) provides additional drama by exaggerating elements from the book, including the initial meeting of Lilly and Felice and character traits, such as Felice’s aggression and Lilly’s poor parenting skills. This dramatic appeal is maximized through the nightmarish backdrop of World War II, which punctuates events in the story. The circumstances surrounding this war are so dramatic that the lovers’ story is necessarily enhanced through the film so it won’t be overshadowed by Nazi activities.
Character Development in Aimee & Jaguar
The film begins with an emotionally unstable Lilly confined to a senior center. Although the film is presented from an omniscient point of view, the viewer is obligated to focus attention on Lilly because this is essentially her story. In the book, the author in an epilogue (rather than a prologue) presents this intimate portrait of the aged Lilly. By putting this portrait of Lilly first, the film makes the viewer feel a little more sympathetic toward her because of her frailty. In her book, however, Fischer saves her subjective view of Lilly for the end, perhaps to increase the reader’s objectivity while reading.
The film seems more subjective than the book, and therefore more entertaining. Many liberties were taken in the film to make Felice more strong and heroic, and to make Lilly more weak and fragile. Overall, the director is chiefly concerned with portraying accurate emotions rather than accurate circumstances. Also, the lesbian sex in the movie (as opposed to the lesbian love in the book) gets more attention in the film.
The book’s focus on Lilly, rather than Felice, takes an easier, safer route than the film, which takes a chance at fully developing a complex person who (due to her brief life and lack of possessions) has to be partially constructed, rather than merely re-created. For example, the scenes with Felice’s grandmother give her some roots, thus making her uprooting – combined with the larger events of the Holocaust – even more painful.
The Book
- Aimee & Jaguar: A Love Story Berlin 1943
- By Erica Fischer
- Alyson Publications
- Paperback, 1998
The Film
- Aimee & Jaguar
- Director: Max Farberbock
- Rating: Unrated
- Run Time: 125 minutes
- German with English subtitles
To learn more about films on religion and spirituality, read Forgiving Dr. Mengele and The Holy Mountain.
