Film
'Outside people were dying. Inside, they were playing the right tunes'. It is 1943 and this is Berlin under siege. Vibrating with decadence and devastation, the city is a chaotic mess of contradictions, and here, in the film 'Aimée and Jaguar', playing host to a dangerous love affair between two very different women.
One, Lilly Wust (Juliane Köhler), alias Aimée, mother of four sons (and honoured with a Bronze Cross for the effort), enjoys her stature as a paragon of Nazi motherhood. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a philandering German officer devoted to the ideal she represents, rather than the person she is, Lilly expends her energies on her children and illicit sexual affairs. Her relationship with Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader), alias Jaguar, a bohemian, cosmopolitan Jewess working under a false name for a Nazi newspaper and delivering information to a resistance group, liberates her from her shallow, staid existence. Their romance, in turn, becomes a distraction from the ugly truth of wartime struggle, and a rallying cry to all who seek not merely to exist, but to live. That is, until the harsh realities of National Socialism wreak upon this relationship a devastating end.
With this film, Director Färberböck pushes a true story based on Lilly's account as related in Erica Fischer's book, 'Aimée and Jaguar', of lesbian romance - a subject often confined to low-budget, art-house movies - into the mainstream. A film preoccupied with themes of the persecution and doomed love could so easily degenerate into sentimental mush. Färberböck, however, avoids cliché by resisting the temptation to exploit the usual Holocaust imagery. The evocation of the mood is, instead, subtly crafted, fashioning a muted but moving exposition of the ubiquity of the Nazi horror which renders acts such as the shooting in the street of Felice's Jewish friend all the more shocking. Radio broadcasts of Nazi propaganda punctuate the film, providing a narrative against which this emotional drama is played out.
Stellar performances carry the film. At once spirited and reserved, Schrader's Felice maintains a glacial, taut composure in order to survive. 'I don't think I'm strong enough', she says. 'For what?' Lilly asks. 'Happiness', comes the reply. But her drooping mouth and world-weary eyes belie an iron will. Boasting a sultry, Dietrich-like charm, Felice delights in danger and relishes every moment stolen from the Nazis as an act of defiance. It is this desire for rebellion and transcendence/victory which initially fuels her pursuit of Lilly, a beautiful, but silly, limited, sensually naïve woman with anti-Semitic leanings.
Only later does the message of the film become "amor vincit omnia": seduction is Felice's initial object. But just as Lilly is transformed, consumed by a love so potent that it renders her lover's religion irrelevant, so is Felice: anxious as she is to enjoy this intoxicating love, the precariousness of which she is all too aware, her barriers also come down.
The potential for ideological conflict is never really probed: the couple's feelings prove powerful enough to overcome such disparities, as well as contemporary prejudices against same-sex unions. Felice thus puts her life needlessly at risk by staying with her lover rather than fleeing abroad, while Lilly, overwhelmed by her sexual and emotional emancipation, is impervious to the dangers Felice faces. Yet despite the worrying discrepancies between the two lovers' personalities and perceptions, the relationship between these women is utterly convincing. Only disaster, though, shocks Lilly into reality: in the opening and concluding shots which frame the main action, we see her fifty years on, steeled and strengthened.
The two leads deliver emotionally naked, courageous performances, most strikingly so in their beautifully-judged, first sexual encounter. 'Aimée and Jaguar' indulges in a few 'flesh' shots and certainly doesn't shy away from portraying the physical side of the relationship. But this is never gratuitous; rather, it is absolutely necessary to create an intimacy which makes this film so involving.
This is a visually opulent production of luminous intensity and juxtaposition, light and darkness, colour and grey, with lingering close ups registering every facial flutter. The scenes in which Felice's saphic friends cavort in all their finery evoke a 'Cabaret'-esque glamour. These companions also provide bursts of light relief: when Lilly's husband returns from the Russian front he unknowingly, but enthusiastically, falls into an unruly lesbian celebration.
With this, Max Färberböck's first film (nominated for a 1999 Golden Globe Award, and Germany's entry for this year's Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars), it is clear he is a director eager to see European cinema flourish in a global film industry all too dominated by predictable, populist pap. Elegant and well-crafted, 'Aimée and Jaguar' is achingly sincere and devoid of Hollywood flash, with astonishing performances making for a profoundly affecting, extraordinary film.
Caroline Hocking
The first rule of writing a review of Fight Club: always talk about Fight Club. The second rule of writing a review of Fight Club: don't attempt to work in well-known lines from the film in a knowing, post-modern way. You just get in a muddle.
Essential viewing for middle-class twenty-somethings who'd love to rebel but don't know how (I'm blushing), David Fincher's 1999 film deals with masculinity, globalisation and the cathartic effect of a really good puch-up. Brad Pitt stars as Tyler Durden, an achingly-cool slab of testosterone whose mysterious appearance forces reluctant suit Ed Norton to confront his deep-seated dissatisfaction with, well, just about everything. Together the pair establish Fight Club. Scuffles in badly-lit cellars quickly evolve into intricate plans to bring down capitalism, and the mild-mannered Norton finds himself at the head of a militant organisation that encompasses just about every man in the country.
Fincher's film is brilliantly-crafted, managing to convey a grimy, subversive air despite its vast Hollywood budget. Stories abound of the numerous in-jokes and proleptic images to be found by watching the film at half-speed; those of us who still have our pride, however, must make do with the final seismic plot-twist and the subsequent fifteen minutes of pure adrenaline. Go and see it, but be warned: you'll be sorely tempted to give V-signs to policemen on the way home. Careful now...
Heleina Postings
It is one of the great cultural cliches amongst a certain class of individuals, that the Star Wars trilogy is a cinematic achievement without compare, the pinnacle of Hollywood's post-war output. I, on the other hand, dislike the Star Wars films with an intensity that borders on loathing. The first three films are an adolescent fantasy derived from world religions and mythology, with plot and character relegated to haindmaidens of the god of special effects. Throughout the original trilogy the acting is uninspired, the principals mouthing the turgid banalities of George Lucas's scripts without caring whether the audience believes in them. With the exception of Han Solo, where Ford's charisma enables him to overcome the limitations of the scripts, we are never able to empathise with the characters. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are the prime examples, mere ciphers where they should be the emotional core of the film. In this context the special effects that Lucas unleashes leave me cold-admittedly they are spectacular by the standards of the time, but what is their point?
If this is all that was wrong with the Star Wars trilogy, they would just be boring films. However, worse than the films themselves is what they resulted in. Their mega blockbuster status resulted in the triumph of spectacle over plot and character, and must take much of the responsibility for the rise of 'high concept' and the consequent Bruckheimer/Simpson dumbing down of the cinematic culture that occurred in the eighties.
The Phantom Menace contains the bad features of the trilogy, only magnified. Those who are considering buying the DVD will know the plot outlines, so I shan't detail them here. In fact, surprisingly little actually happens in the film. There is a pod-race on the desert planet of Tattooine, a cheeky steal from Ben-Hur, and a climactic battle on the planet Naboo. All the usual Star Wars traits are present. The acting is universally bad, with Liam Neeson in particular appearing to be heavily sedated, and MacGregor talking in a ridiculous plum-in-mouth English accent. The script, as one would expect from Lucas, is a shocker, full of heavy, clunking dialogue (Elmore Leonard he ain't), and the plot is decidedly uninteresting. As with all prequels, the problem is that the film has to set the scene for what we know is going to happen. In the case of pictures like the Godfather Part 2 this problem is surmounted by the fascinating drawing out of the character of the young Don Corleone, in DeNiro's masterful performance. However if, like George Lucas, you eschew characterization, you are left with a rather boring film. The special effects are astounding at first, but after a while they become tedious with nothing to support them. On top of all this the film contains a dubious racial content. The conspiratorial leaders of the Trade Federation sound like sinister orientals straight from central casting, while the devious, slave-owning proprietor of a spare parts store on Tattoine seems to be a thinly veiled Jewish stereotype. The worst of all is Jar-Jar Binks. The supposedly comical character, aside from being deeply annoying, is also a caricature of blackness that verges on the truly offensive. His ridiculous argot is a crude and derogatory parody of black, particularly Jamaican, slang, while he walks like a Hollywood executive's idea of a New York pimp.
The DVD itself represents, for the Star Wars fan (presumably the only ones who will buy it) good value for money. It features a number of deleted scenes, including an extended pod-race sequence that further demonstrates the technical wizardry at the disposal of Industrial Light and Magic. The hour long documentary illustrates more closely the processes behind the special effects, which even I found interesting.. The final component that will interest Star Wars buffs is Lucas's own commentary, something of a rarity given his reclusive nature. In short, if you like Star Wars, buy this DVD, although this advice is redundant as you have probably bought it already. But, if you do like Star Wars, I think that you're very wrong.
Alastair Robertson
8th Nov 2001