So I love Netflix. I wish they had more available but I love Netflix. Watched Aimee and Jaguar off there yesterday. My only complaint is that apparently it's only available until November 10th! That's very sad as the film was amazing.
It's a 1998, German war film, set in Berlin towards the end of the second world war. It follows the story of five different women living in Berlin at the time, four of whom are Jewish. It is based on the memoirs of Lilly Wust, who is in fact one of the main characters. That may be kind of obvious. I apologize if so. It is pre-breakfast.
Anyways this film is one of the most beautiful and sad things I have seen in a while (I'm actually trying to think of when the last time I saw a film this lovely was. I'm unsure). I should warn you, fellow reader, that I am biased; as I told Boyfriend last night, I love foreign language films so I am already uber inclined to give a good review. I love hearing the language instead of English-with-an-accent-so-you-think-they're-speaking-German. There are also super hot women in it. That does nothing to help my biases. This ties into another reason I love Netflix.
They have a section called Gay and Lesbian films! I found this one there. As I mentioned, it is based on the memoirs of Lilly Wust, who at the time of the second world war was a housewife married to a German soldier. She falls in love with a Jewish woman, Felice Schragenheim and the story ensues. Maria Schrader plays Felice and holy damn is she sexy. She reminds me a bit of Noomi Rapace in appearance; I am sure I have gushed about Noomi. There is some extremely hot lesbian sex in the movie, not just between Felice and Lilly but also with Felice and her former girlfriend, Ilse, played by Johanna Wokalek, who is also a sexy beast.
Sorry, I could rant about the sexy women in the movie for quite some time but you are probably going, that's great, but why else is the film amazing? Well, as I said it is beautiful and extremely sad. I don't feel I'm giving anything away by saying that because come on, it's a love story between the wife of a Nazi officer and a Jewish woman in WWII Berlin. But this movie also explores the politics of the time and highlights the struggles of the time. Not just of the Jewish people but also the Germans living in bombed out Berlin. It's actually very fascinating. The movie comes across as unbiased to either side and just simply presents a picture of the facts through the characters. The story feels real and the characters feel alive. I am thinking that a lot of the lack of tropes and horrible plot lines has to do with the fact that the story is based off of memoirs and therefore, actually happened. The terror of the time is not minced around and the troubles of the people are not easily resolved. The ending is not a neat little box that allows you to go, well that was nice and fun but moving on. No, this one stays with you. It's haunting. I love it.
As I mentioned, it appears to only be available on Netflix for another two days (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!) so if you have Netflix I recommend watching it before then. And even if you don't have Netflix, watch it. It is wonderful. You will cry by the way. A warning. But you'll also laugh and smile and if you're someone like me, drool. Mmmm curves. So yes, Aimee and Jaguar; fantastic film.
