Risky business

>> Aimée & Jaguar dramatizes Nazi-era lesbian love

by MATTHEW HAYS

Of all the stories of people trying to avoid persecution in Nazi Germany, it doesn't seem to get much riskier than this. Aimée & Jaguar is the based-on-a-true-story movie about two women who fall in love in Berlin in the early '40s. Lilly (Juliane Kohler) is a mother of four and dedicated wife to a Nazi officer; Felice (Maria Schrader) is a Jewish member of the underground resistance. Lesbian and Jewish, as one officer intones at a key point in the movie. Definitely not a privileged class under the Third Reich.

As directed by Max Farberbock, Aimée & Jaguar is an adaptation that caps a long evolution of the tale of Lilly and Felice. (The film's title is derived from their nicknames for one another.) Lilly survived the war and, after years of silence about her ordeal, told her story to an author who transcribed it into a book. Their story made the bestseller list, was translated into 11 languages and inspired plays, poetry, a musical and now this movie.

It's a captivating story. Lilly was rather repressed, not really in touch with her feelings. Felice, on the other hand, was wild and alive, a woman who loved life and partied hard in defiance of the Nazi heavies who dominated Berlin. Felice seduced Lilly in a scene that is recaptured in the film, a scene that could so easily have been mishandled in the hands of lesser actors.

Farberbock lets his actors look longingly at each other for long tracts of the film. There are beautiful love scenes, lots of wet kisses and naked bodies lounging about. Much of the film's success must be credited to the cinematographer, Tony Imi, who lenses his subjects beautifully.

Where the film falls a bit short is in the dramatic tension inherent in our heroines' plight. Though we get some sense of the threat they live under, it's somehow not made nearly tangible enough, which robs the film of a lot of its potential punch. We should be able to taste their fear, as they proceed to turn an affair into a long-term relationship, one that could easily cost them their lives.

It turns out to be an odd turn for Aimée & Jaguar, a film that only seems to drive home the extreme evil of the Nazi regime in its very final moments.

Aimée & Jaguar opens Friday, May 25