The director of "Aimee and Jaguar" returns to Germany
In my oh so humble opinion, German director Max Farberbock made one of the only truly good lesbian movies: Aimee and Jaguar. (Sorry, Mango Kiss and Go Fish lovers.) So when I heard that he had a new film coming out, I got excited.
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t involve lesbians, but the main character is a woman and Mr. Farberbock is going back to Berlin in the 1940s, a world he captured so well in Aimee and Jaguar. While Aimee and Jaguar was set during the WWII, A Woman in Berlin takes place right after the war when the city is taken over by Russia’s Red Army.
The film is based on an anonymously written diary, that we now know was was written by journalist Marta Hillers. It detailed the terrors women faced at the hands of their Russian occupiers.
There is a lot of content out there about Berlin during the war, but there is very little out there about Berlin right after the war. Just recently, this has started to change with movies like The Reader, but for years, the horrors that the German people went through during their occupation failed to get recognized as it was overshadowed by the atrocities they committed with the Holocaust.
A Woman in Berlin exposes many of the horrible truths that were hidden for years. The Red Army viewed the women of Berlin as their personal punching bags and play toys. Women were repeatedly beaten and raped. And as the Russians were the occupiers, these women had zero recourse against them. The women of Germany were prisoners in their own country. For them, the war was just beginning.
So yeah, this is hardly a great date movie, but nonetheless, I think it sounds fascinating. Farberbock has a talent for taken unknown stories and worlds and bringing them to light in a visceral way. Rent Aimee and Jaguar for a date night (not a first date, though. And buy some tissues). Then, go out to see A Woman in Berlin on date, um, ten. I know I’ll be there.
- Julia Miranda's blog
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Oh wow. Looking forward to
Oh wow. Looking forward to that movie. If I can manage to find it. The director catches that era so well...
Aimee and Jaguar was stunning. Hopefully this is just as good.
Loved Aimee and Jaguar
Love the book
I love that movie
I just did a report on A & J for my class. I love that there was new news in reference to this here today.
Thanks!
Aimee and Jaguar
I loved that movie! will deff look for this next one! :D Will probably read the book first though Lol.
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Let it Rock,Let it roll
Aimee and Jaguar
great tip
great tip, thank you. I love Aimee and Jaguar, both the movie and the book - I even had the fortune to meet with the writer, she is great and it was a very interesting reader-writer meeting (I don't know how it is called in English exactly), with some parts of the book were taken out and presented by actors. She also talked a lot about Lilly, how she viewed herself in that situation, how she shared her story, what is she like.
The movie was excellent as well, excellent paste and cinematography and great acting, love it. I remember Maria Schrader (who played Felice) saying in an interview when asked about her relation to her character: she said she would just love to meet her, so facinated by her. AND named her own daughter after Felice.
Anyway, thanks again for the tip of A woman in Berlin, I will definitely see it/read it, although I have to collect myself well to be able to watch violent stories of women in war... it is still a hurting reality today
This will be a must
This will be a must see film for me!
A/J is one of my favourite pictures, and generally speaking, literature and/or films relating to 'War periods' have always (maybe strangely) fascinated me.
Cheers
What? You've never seen
I've read the book
I've not read the book
tho I'd heard of it & definitely want to ^ It was used as source material in Anthony Beevor's 'Berlin: The Downfall' (2002) for a description of the capital falling to the Russians. (His book was in turn used as reference for 'Downfall', the movie, which briefly showed Fraulein (sp..) crossing a dangerous city in the final 'outdoor' scenes.)
The new film should be a sobering experience given its subject, very well done if by Max ed/Farberbock. Aimee & Jaguar probably has the highest production values of any lesbian film, & lots of heart. Btw I loved your personal post xevus, thanks for sharing.
I'm looking forward to seeing it; thanks JM for bringing this to notice.
Fuck that. As much as I
Mm I've read about the
German invasion eastward. It's full of appalling documented fact which, unlike some war-related fact, has been publicly known for years. (News of more could always emerge of course.) The human suffering's certainly greater in sheer scale than that of Berlin's final fall, or Germany's. Hopefully the "F*** that" up there's for the invaders' barbaric treatment of millions of civilians in Russia & the East.
N/P.. It sounds like Farberbock's new film's based on Marta Hiller's diary of her life in Berlin at the end of the war, or just after. Soviet-era archives on Berlin have been opening up since glasnost; like Beevor the director may have used those too. Thanks again Julia for bringing us this.