Lilly's character was undeserving of Felice

I think both characters had flaws. I'll admit I was enraptured by Felice when I watched the movie, but I still felt the love between both of these women. I think there is nothing in particular that made Felice love Lilly, she just loved her and vice versa. I think Felice felt an immediate attraction to Lilly, and they both felt an immediate connection which ended up being much more than they bargained for. I don't know that either expected to fall so in love. For me, I definitely fell in love with Felice watching this movie, but I never felt Lilly was an undeserving partner for her.

I couldn't imagine how anyone could find her sympathetic. She could have been seduced by anyone who showed the slightest bit of interest in her. She as very hypocritical, selfish and ditzy. She was portrayed as a pretty bad mother as well.

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You did just fine, Clarence. Now go git yo'self some hot cornbread!

Love is blind and knows no rules. In many ways this movie was about limitless boundaries & freedom, and a perfect example is in their love for one another, in a time and place when restrictions were beyond rediculous. Another key phrase, that made me think as to why Felice may have been attracted to Lilly, Felice mentions in the end that she never felt safe after her mother died, only again did she feel safe with Lilly. Lilly wasn't the greatest mother, but you knew she loved her children. As in the phrase "girls tend to marry their daddy's" well in this case, it was a motherly type Felice needed. Felice's strong character and beliefs made me want to trust her in why she'd fallen in love with Lilly. She guides us, not so perfectly, as to what she saw in Lilly by her passion for this woman. She had shown me what I, or no one else could see in someone like Lilly Wust. Only to be wrong about Lilly in the end when she herself, asks Felice not to leave her-I felt Felice's relief & saw Lilly in a whole new light. It turned out that both women were neither perfect, but yet were so perfect for one another. They also shared pain, different kinds of pain, perhaps on opposite ends of the spectrum, but they both learned from one another by it and I also believe it was somewhat responsible too for them falling in love, as well as all the other reasons. To me there are more reasons for why these two would fall in love, more so than not, but I think I've made my point....this was such a tracically beautiful movie, all the way around and I absolutely adored it.

Love and attraction are indeed hard to explain ... but you make a great point ... what is special about Lilly. She is OK looking and pretty screwed up

I felt the same way about Lilly. But that's not how attraction/sparks/love works. And there's no way to say that Felice would have been in love with Lilly for the rest of her life if she had a long one. Or that Lilly wouldn't have moved on to someone else.

The actress (Julianne Kohler) was great, though. And I'm puzzled by the slightly negative comments about her looks. For one thing, she's a very attractive woman. Mother of four living in war torn Berlin, she probably looked better than she had any right too. But her looks aren't really the point of the story at all. Would people really have found it better if she had the ravishing look of some woman on the cover of a romance novel?