Christiane F. [DVD] [1981]

This film was reissued in 2000 , as with films like Salo, Straw Dogs & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre it had taken on a mythic quality- having largely been unavailable on video and dealing with controversial subjects.Ulrich Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn) based this film on a 'true story'- which with the sensational scribe on the back of the cover makes you expect a work of exploitation. This film couldn't be farther away from...For example, the love scene is shot in a way that the 14 year old subject is not fetishised and the whipping scene comes across as a vile reversal of power, in tandem with a body becoming currency to feed addiction.Christiane F details the discovery of what Celine called 'the other side of life'; her subsequent fall into addiction and prostitution are the results of that discovery and freedom.Edel captures 70's Berlin with wonderful visuals, such as the scene on top of the Mercedes building (this is aided by music from Bowie's Berlin Trilogy: Low, "Heroes" & Lodger & the albums Stage and Station to Station). These songs suit the shopping centres, then the epitomy of futurism and the scene to the single version of "Heroes" feels like something between the shopping centre scene in Romper Stomper and the world of JG Ballard (Crash, High Rise). Edel uses Bowie's music as wonderfully as Pennebaker did with Ziggy Stardust, Schrader with Cat People, David Fincher with Se7en and David Lynch did with Lost Highway.The Sound club soundtracks the hedonistic lifestyle with plenty of Bowie classics- TVC15, Look Back in Anger & Boys Keep Swinging. There is also a great sequence of Bowie in concert playing the Stage-version of Station to Station; Bowie looks great- as great as he did when he did "Heroes" on Top of The Pops in 1978. It's great when he sings to a pill-popping Christiane the coda "It's too late!"- a soundtrack to self-destruction/always crashing in the same car...Christiane F does not feel as nihilistic as subsequent films in this region- perhaps this is due to the redemptive coda (recalling the recent Crazy/Beautiful, which edited out drug and sexual references); this feels more like Drugstore Cowboy or Jesus' Son than darker films like Kids and Requiem for a Dream. I think Christiane F is a well handled melodrama, Larkin's famous line regarding parents seems pertinent; we don't get simplistic good/evil dichotimies regarding drugs and sex. Which is why people just say "Yes!". Edel handles the fact that Christiane comes from a broken home with balance, there are many excellent scenes that utilise documentary resonance and silence to get across the point (rather than OTT acting , aka mugging for an award.)For me the most telling shot is of the prostitutes lined up at Zoo Station to Bowie/Eno's Warszawa: this gets across the manner in which the beautiful young have been reduced to a mere economic transaction as a result of addiction.Christiane F is a brilliant film, one that I think teens (and their parents) ought to see- despite the ridiculous 18 certificate (ironic that the realism of Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan gets a 15 certificate). It is much better than recent films such as Crazy/Beautiful and Lovely Rita. A key film of the last twenty-five years then...

i'm in the uk and don't know any german but i love this film thank god this dvd is in original german with english subtitles!!!

A good lesson in the film for me. Even though i do not take narcotics. For me being a fan of Bowies music. People have to realise that they do not have to take narcotics to get high and you can get a high of sorts from other sources that are less dangerous. In this case for me it was the Bowie music. There are always other ways to enjoy, and to get that fix, high and music is one of them. I myself find David's music very addictive in itself. And therefore the film may as well of been about being addicted to the music that you hear in the film, rather than any Narcotics. It may of even been saying this anyway. You can get films with double meanings. Where what the subject matter of the film was was not what the film was trying to really say. I love David Bowie's music so much and find it addictive and therefore it may as well as been a public warning about how addictive the music is once you get into it. Regards Nicholas Blundell

Brilliant anti drug movie 🎥

Unfortunately, there are parents, like that mother and I guess the father, too, who may have walked out on the family. We have seen it, in the UK, in the case of the Bradford child grooming gangs. What is the matter with parents who do not seem to care that their children, as young as 13, just walk out of the house at will and stay the night away?I do not know how they got away with using such young actresses in scenes of nudity, sex and drug taking. Also, I do not know how they manage to 'simulate' the scenes where they inject heroine.I have two young daughters but I could not show them this film, as a warning. It is too strong.

The disc works perfectly, and the subtitles only let me down once. This film is breathtaking in its approach to a complex set of circumstances that Christiane finds herself in, at the tender age of twelve. Disconnected from her poor quality neighbourhood and disparate family, in spite of her loving mother's best efforts, and feeling the tempestuous onset of adolescence, she reaches out to her seemingly more assured classmate, and the scene that she inhabits. It is Berlin, in the early 1980's and the scene is one of the heaviest club scenes in the world. There is a heady mix of drugs, hardcore music, and prostitution. Christiane falls in love with a slightly older boy. She is staying out all night at weekends. Someone offers her a pill, her hero, David Bowie, plays a concert, she collapses on her bathroom floor after injecting "H" (heroin), and her mother helps her and her boyfriend get clean. But it is not so easy to stay away. Aged just fourteen, she has become a prostitute, and it takes a tragedy for her to find the strength she needs.

saw this film many years ago very disturbing. lots of bowie's music and scenes of him in concert , but story focases on a 13 year old girl who gets in with a croud of people who take heavy drugs, and prostititution won't say anymore but definitely worth a watch

Saw this film back in 81 in Canada and what an impact it had. So with Bowie passing it was time to see this film again. It's in German with English sub titles and that's fine because the acting more than makes up for words. The film hasn't lost its impact after all these years. It's very sad that the real Christiane F is still addicted to H and realeased her second book a couple of years ago about her life since Zoo Station, but not in English print yet. So the film is a keeper.

Was diese DVD anbelangt - ich kannte den Film bereits schon, da seinerzeit meine Deutschlehrerin Dr. Agnes Jordan wollte, das wir Mädchen (ich ging auf eine reine Mädchenschule) ihn uns ansehen. Seinerzeit noch auf VHS, denn DVD's gab es ja noch nicht.Bevor es aber an den Film ging, verlangte die Lehrerin von uns Mädchen aber, dass wir im Vorfeld das Buch lesen und eine kurze Inhaltsangabe darüber schreiben. Dies wohl nicht ohne Grund, denn wie in Filmen durchaus üblich wurde auch bei Christiane F. einiges weggelassen und die Handlung sehr gestrafft.Seinerzeit konnte ich das Buch ja nicht einmal richtig zu Ende lesen - diese Lektüre war für mich mit meinen damals 16 Jahren und entsprechender Naivität wohl sehr harter Tobak. Leider fiel das Buch, welches ich von Frau Dr. Jordan seinerzeit hatte, einem Feuer zum Opfer - ich habe es mir aber bei Gelegenheit nachbestellt, wenn auch nicht bei amazon, sondern über einen Alternativanbieter, und dann auch gelesen.Jetzt - mit 50 Jahren auf dem Buckel und entsprechender Lebenserfahrung - sehe ich einiges nicht nur mit anderen Augen, sondern kann die Literatur auch besser verstehen (und natürlich auch verkraften). Jetzt beim Film fehlt mir komplett die Vorgeschichte, welche Christiane in ihrem Buch geschildert hat. Man wird praktisch ins kalte Wasser geworfen, indem man sofort mit ihrer Heroinsucht konfrontiert wird - die Einstiegsphase über die sogenannten weichen Drogen wie Haschisch fehlt komplett bzw. wurde nur ganz kurz in ein paar Nebenszenen angerissen.Dies wäre aber wichtig, insbesondere wenn ich die aktuellen Debatten betreffend der Legalisierung von Cannabisprodukten bedenke. Das Kiffen kann nämlich ein Einstieg in eine Drogenkarriere sein und Leid mit sich bringen - so wie man es bei Christiane F. in weiterer Folge gesehen hat.Was Architekten und Baumeister alles anstellen können, hat man in diesem Film ebenfalls zu Genüge gesehen, denn Gropiusstadt ist nichts anderes wie eine Ansammlung von grottenhässlichen anonymen Betonklötzen, welche in gleichförmiger Uniformität gebaut wurden, die Menschen einander entfremden und zudem vom schlechten Geschmack der Auftraggeber zeugen.In dieser Umgebung, welche nicht nur von der Architektur her soziale Kälte ausstrahlte, sondern auch sonst nichts Angenehmes für die Menschen zu bieten hatte, lebte Christiane - und hatte weder in der Familie entsprechend Halt gefunden, noch in ihrem Freundeskreis. Sie war praktisch wie ein Schiff auf hoher See, das von den Wellen von einer Seite zur anderen geworfen wird, ohne Möglichkeit, in einen sicheren Hafen einlaufen zu können...Die Düsternis, die dieser Film somit mit sich bringt, passt somit recht gut zur Stimmung, welche vermittelt werden soll. Die Bilder der kotzenden, sich vor Schmerzen windenden Christiane, als sie versuchte einen sogenannten "kalten" Entzug zu machen, sollten sich jedem ins Gedächtnis einbrennen und eine Warnung dahingehend darstellen, dass man die Finger von den Drogen lassen soll - egal welcher Art von Drogen! Nadja Brunkhost ist, was die Darstellung von Christiane anbelangt, eine sehr gute Schauspielerin gewesen und hat sich somit als gute Besetzung erwiesen. Auch die schauspielerische Leistung der anderen Protagonisten war gut und hat mir gefallen, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, mit welch geringem Budget der Film seinerzeit gedreht worden ist.Zu den technischen Details der DVD ist nur insofern was zu sagen, dass es neben der deutschen Tonspur interessanterweise auch welche in Dänisch, Norwegisch und Schwedisch sowie Untertitel für Hörgeschädigte gibt. Auch die Inhaltsangabe auf der Rückseite des Covers ist in diesen drei nordischen Sprachen abgefasst, was mich allerdings zunächst irritiert hat.Alles in allem ein Film, der in keiner Sammlung fehlen sollte und eine Warnung an alle sein soll, die Finger von Drogen zu lassen.

Très beau film après le livre

Ho voluto rivedere questo film dopo molto tempo averlo visto per la prima volta decenni fa. Effettivamente gli oltre 40 anni dalla data di uscita si sentono ma il film non manca di elementi di interesse, in particolare alcuni scorci su una Berlino ancora immersa nell'atmosfera precedente la caduta del muro. Non mi addentro in valutazioni, non sono un critico ma certe scene con la musica di David Bowie presa da Low sono ancora molto evocative e di impatto. Per non parlare della discesa nell'abiezione assoluta della protagonista una volta entrata nel vortice delle droghe pesanti: rende l'idea e lascia immaginare che la realtà possa anche essere più dolorosa e orribile di quanto rappresentato che è già molto. Da vedere.

Nunca me llegó el pedido!

No subtitles 🙄