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Product Description
Gritty drama based on the true confessions of 13-year-old Christiane (played here by Natja Brunckhorst), a girl who lives with her mother in a high-rise tower block, gets into drugs after visiting an ultra-modern disco known as the 'Sound', and eventually becomes a prostitute in order to pay for her heroin addiction. This hard-hitting film is set against the background music of David Bowie, who also appears briefly in a concert scene.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: German ( Dolby Surround ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.66:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Production Notes, Remastered, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14 years old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-storey apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by the 'Sound', a new disco with most modern equipment. Although she's legally too young, she asks a friend to take her. There she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Montreal World Film Festival, ...Christiane F (1981) ( Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zo )
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
An excellent film about the descent into drug addiction of a 14 year old girl living on a Berlin housing estate - from a beautiful girl to a drug-crazed zombie lookalike.
It all rings horribly true and the characters are all extremely likeable, which makes the story all the more horrific. The acting, the photography, the scripting, and the direction are all first class. Definitely 5 stars.
It all rings horribly true and the characters are all extremely likeable, which makes the story all the more horrific. The acting, the photography, the scripting, and the direction are all first class. Definitely 5 stars.
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
By "ukwheel"
Format:DVD
I still consider that the viewing of this film at the cinema some twenty years ago was the main reason I stayed on the straight and narrow.
Although slightly dated now, the message remains powerfully the same
Although slightly dated now, the message remains powerfully the same
EVERY school kid should me made to watch this film at about the age of 15 (The 18 rating is also dated - this needs reclassifying)
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By "starpower7"
Format:VHS Tape
It's difficult to do Christiane F justice in words, I could write pages and pages and I still wouldn't have got my point across. It is the most frightening, realistic, seedy, dark, dank and potent film I have ever seen. Edel and his fine young cast draw us into a world where even withdrawal is no way out, and the addicts, whilst being experienced junkies, clearly do not understand their situation - "we'll only smoke grass now and again." As the film progresses, the earlier "heroin chic" and constant referencing of David Bowie disappears, leaving only a world where there is no way out, just an ever-tightening circle of lies, false promises and bleakness. Look, just watch it, ok?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By David Wisely
Format:DVD
If you've never been addicted to anything then it is incredibly hard to understand how it starts and drives you to complete desperation. Watch CF and you will understand - the self-deception comes across superbly, the trigger of old friends, places pushing C back to heroin use. The film was shot without permission in several laces with an amateur cast - Natja Brunckhorst (CF) comes across as a teenager who just falls into a dark adult world almost out of curiosity - 13 going on 25.
The atmosphere of W Berlin in the 70s also comes across - the sense of isolation, the dismal post-war housing, the student anger.
But don't watch the film if you are feeling down or depressed! Even the final message that CF is "clean" leaves you thinking "I don't believe it" - she is so damaged she will never have a normal or happy life (in 2008 she has just been busted again and had her son taken into care).
The atmosphere of W Berlin in the 70s also comes across - the sense of isolation, the dismal post-war housing, the student anger.
But don't watch the film if you are feeling down or depressed! Even the final message that CF is "clean" leaves you thinking "I don't believe it" - she is so damaged she will never have a normal or happy life (in 2008 she has just been busted again and had her son taken into care).
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a brilliant but nightmarish film.Based on a sequence of articles by two German journalists,later made into a book,it shows the decline of a teenage girl as she enters the drug subculture of West Berlin in the 1970s.The actors are mainly amateurs,but they come up with impressive performances.
The soundtrack by David Bowie(who lived in Berlin in the late 1970s)is great,with the jolly,optimistic sound of "Heroes" at the start,then,as the film goes on,being replaced by the eerie electronic sounds of the "Low" and "Heroes" albums.His own cameo performing a fine rendition of "Station to Station"is worth a watch too.
If you have teenage children,it will be your worst nightmare come true,but you may find they enjoy it too(my 17 year old neice thought it was great).
The soundtrack by David Bowie(who lived in Berlin in the late 1970s)is great,with the jolly,optimistic sound of "Heroes" at the start,then,as the film goes on,being replaced by the eerie electronic sounds of the "Low" and "Heroes" albums.His own cameo performing a fine rendition of "Station to Station"is worth a watch too.
If you have teenage children,it will be your worst nightmare come true,but you may find they enjoy it too(my 17 year old neice thought it was great).
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Jason Parkes
#1 HALL OF FAME
Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
... Read more ›7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I first saw the film in its original version in Germany and when I bought the video at home in the UK I was horrified at the hideous and clumsy Americanised dubbing.
I really felt that it detracted from the ability of this film to portray the reality and the meaning of physical addiction, let alone the brilliant performances of the young German actors involved.
I really felt that it detracted from the ability of this film to portray the reality and the meaning of physical addiction, let alone the brilliant performances of the young German actors involved.
I am not sure if any of the dialogue has been tidied up for the re-issue, personally, I would like to hope so - but despite this Christiane F remains a must-see for all teenagers and their parents/carers.
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4.2 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
troubling film
There's little pleasure in watching a young beautiful girl pursue a drug fuelled path leading to moral and personal degradation and possible eventual destruction. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. K. H. Cobb
5.0 out of 5 stars
All young teens should watch this movie
I watched this movie 30 years ago and it single handedly steered me away from drugs. I am just about to get my daughter to watch it and I hope it is as influential to her as it was... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Laura
4.0 out of 5 stars
mj
very good movie - if you havent read the book! if you read the book, you will notice that most of the things that were in the book are not actually in the movie!
Published 9 months ago by mj
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just as engrossing as the book
Really well acted, true to the book, underground movie which sums up well the 1970's Berlin teenage drug culture and set against a Bowie backdrop. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Michael Desmond
3.0 out of 5 stars
anti drugs ?
Watched this film at school at 14 years of age as part of a social studies class and have to say the general reaction from classmates was that it quite glamorized drug use. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2011 by byekitty
1.0 out of 5 stars
miss read advert !!
It's in German so it's now in the bin !!
my mistake completely, should have read the advert infull !!
my mistake completely, should have read the advert infull !!
Published on 23 Aug 2010 by Nige
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well woth buying..
The Germans have made 3 classics-Downfall/Baader Meinhof and Christiane F.
tO THE PERSON WHO SAID ITS IN GERMAN-IT IS JUST PUT THE SUBTITLES ON. Read more
tO THE PERSON WHO SAID ITS IN GERMAN-IT IS JUST PUT THE SUBTITLES ON. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2010 by S. E. Taylor
4.0 out of 5 stars
very good
very good film but made the mistake of buying in german language do not understand
Published on 9 Jan 2010 by D. Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Excellent film, excellent music a must see for all teenagers as a warning against drug abuse.
Published on 15 Dec 2009 by scruffy git
5.0 out of 5 stars
mind-blowing experience
Forget the "willing suspension of disbelief" - you won't need it. Christiane F. is so believable I found myself wondering if the actors actually shot up heroin while filming the... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2009 by C. Morgan
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