Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

WARNING!...This is a very, Very, VERY depressing movie!...VERY!... The brutal reality depicted in this 1981, German film is so shockingly graphic at times that it sends the viewer into a state of near numbness due to over-exposure."Christiane F" is basically a savage blow-by-blow account of what could easily happen to a naive, 14 year old, German brat who leaves the manicured, middle class comforts of her white, suburban home and decides to trek on down to Berlin (where she thinks the grass is greener).What is ultimately the most depressing thing about "Christiane F" is the fact that it is based on a true account of one young girl's downward spiral into the arena of hell, via the fast lane.And, is the movie "Christiane F" an answer to the problem? No, not really. It could never be that. But, perhaps, it may open a few eyes. And, believe me, the more eyes open, the better.*Special note* - Pop idol - David Bowie makes a cameo appearance in this film and a number of his songs are featured throughout the film's soundtrack.

Of course you can't compare movies to books, but I've expected a lot more from this film. All in all it didn't feel very fluent: Slow character development and emotionless acting was my impression. The characters didn't feel very authentic (detlef seemed so forced to play an awkward person in some scenes), maybe because most of the kids weren't actors in the first place. Or the director intended the lack of emotions, fitting bored kids/teenagers, in that case I didn't like it very much.Besides the slow plot in the film, I think the overall mood was pretty spot on. All of the sets were pretty gloomy and it just gave me such a nasty feeling, looking at spots where all the junkies were consuming heroin (or even prostituting themselves).I did miss the aspect, that the viewer did not really know the motive behind Christiane. In the book, it is exactly explained, why she ultimately did drugs. There is only a short passage of her youth in the film, which could also have been included (Since the dialogues between characters felt like ages passing, it should have been doable). Edit: It does become better in the second half of the movie.To sum up: I don't think it is a bad movie, because it is a drama with a very interesting matter, but the whole style to it just isn't my cup of tea.

We don't hear as much about drug addiction now. Sadly, it seems to have become accepted more in the collective conscious of society, and I think that's a very bad development. Drugs and drug addiction continue to pull unwitting people into their web, often permanently. This movie, "Christane F.", is an exceptional movie on the horrors of drug addiction. A key part of that is having the human side of the issue in clear focus all the time.Christiane is a bored, aimless teenager in West Berlin in the 70s. I remember what it was like being a teenager. Suddenly, the comfort of being a kid was taken from you, and you were exposed to the real world and all of its difficult realities. That's enough to make anyone jaded, and there is nothing for Christiane to do in the boring apartment neighbourhood where she lives. She escapes her day-to-day life through the music of her idol, David Bowie. Desperate to feel alive, she has her eye on a new disco called The Sound. Even though too young to enter, she gets her friend to take her. But this new disco turns out to be a seedy teen hangout full of drugs and dealers. Christiane meets a guy there and falls in love with him. She'll do anything to keep this positive new influence in her life - even if that means sink into the world of drugs that he's slowly sinking into.This film hits close to home because of how utterly real it feels. You even come to understand, if not agree with, why Christiane chooses her path. After she falls in with her new clique of friends, there is an exhilarating scene of them running around Berlin, aimlessly and high on their freedom. David Bowie's "Heroes" plays throughout. These kids desperately want to escape their dark and dreary realities. Too bad that they end up choosing a means of escape that plunges them into an even darker reality. Frighteningly, and humanly, the characters are fully aware of their addictions. They just can't find the spirit to do anything about it.One particular scene is terrifying. Christiane and her boyfriend are locked in her mother's bedroom while cold turkey floods through them. The agony they project is quite hard to stomach, even when they're not coughing up blood. This drug destroys their lives, if not just their bodies, and while they know and want to escape their heroin addiction, their human insecurities make it difficult to do so. Slowly, indeed, they become less and less human in their constant search for the next fix.The actors were astonishing, so utterly believable, showing talent way beyond their years. "Christiane F." is a frightening, sadly relevant movie about one of the darkest side-effects of society, and the deeply human turmoil that lands people there - often permanently. Fortunately, Christiane ultimately managed to escape her drug addiction, and hopefully this autobiographical story will keep other wayward kids from following her path.

Christiane F is powerfully confronting on it's first view. I first saw it, when I was 14. As just seeing it the other day, it is still a powerful engaging film about teenage drug addiction, which the two leads, so convincingly play, there's never a moment you don't believe em', where you forget they're actors. The film was surprisingly made by the same guy who made Body Of Evidence, where a couple of years earlier, he did that powerful and one of a kind art-house film, Last Exit To Brooklyn. Here, we follow Christine's life from 11 upwards, where she's learning quick, trying to escape the tedium of living with just her mother and sister in Berlin. Little Sis splits, leaving the duo, where Christiane and her mother are slowly drifting apart. Mummy has this new boyfriend, which of course like any daughter, disapproves of. The boyfriend gives her a David Bowie record, where she already has that particular album, a point to be made there. After clubbing about with her best friend, she meets her first boyfriend, Detlev, already an addict/and part time hustler, working the train station where perverted older clients with a lot of doe pick em up. Drug taking runs high in this, the first shock scene has a guy who overdoses in a cubicle, which reminded of how frank and shockingly real that scene was. Obviously that nameless guy was a bloody good actor. Also in close up, a little too close, we see as a test of love, Christiane pin pricking here skin, making a tattoo. Soon she graduates to H, and there's a private room, where an H is painted on the door. We follow her descent, and more a need for companionship. One cold turkey scene, ends with her and boyfriend, Detlev vomiting over each other (the things actors have to do). There are people who will misjudge this film as amateur, or a sleazy made for shock value film, but sometimes you have to shock to get a message across. I admit it felt a bit of amateur, but I think I was manipulated over the negative or bad reviews. Yes the movie does have faults, but it's shockingly powerful. But the big flaw, I found in the whole movie, was the scattered structure of story, and it's connected scenes, not making it the easiest film to follow in that respect. It was like we were missing some bits, and other parts of it were moving too quick, or weren't explained enough, where the journey of the story wasn't the clearest, and this is what downgraded it's quality, and with the film being dubbed didn't help. But still it's a powerfully charged movie from 83', a cult hit, you have to experience, with a memorable last scene on an island, where Christine cleans up.