In the 70s, David Bowie fan Christiane is a young teen living in a Berlin apartment block with her mother and little sister Sabine. Sabine decides to go live with their father. Christiane follows cool schoolmate Kessi to the disco "Sound" where she finds new friends. They do minor mayhem and drugs. Christiane hates that they do H. Soon she's also doing heroin as she slowly gets drawn into the dark world of drugs and sexual exploitation. She and boyfriend Detlef are forced to do more and more for their next hit.

Natja Brunckhorst was actually 14 filming this movie. Her youth really sells this harrowing story about drug addiction spreading among young people. It may be cheesy but it would be an even bigger shock if the movie starts with her having a childlike birthday party. It would put her age and innocence front and center. This is not a fun romp like Trainspotting. This is a straight forward unflinching look at the damage from drug addiction. All the kids look worse and worse as the movie goes on. It's a little long but it shows the entire long road downwards.

"Christiane F." is still today, almost 35 years after it was done, among the most famous German movies, especially if you only count the 1980s. It is about a girl that makes the wrong friends and gets sucked deeper and deeper into an abyss of drug addiction, prostitution and homelessness. I think this Berlin-set movie has some good moments, but just as many bad ones too unfortunately. Apart from that, the source material simply was not good enough to make a convincing and entertaining film that easily passes the two-hour mark. It's not really Natja Brunckhorst's fault, she played her part well and most of the other actors were solid too, even if they are not in film anymore today or have even, like most of them, not acted in anything else apart from this movie.

The writer and director here is Uli Edel, still early in his career. He quickly moved to Hollywood afterward, went on to direct "The Mists of Avalon", but also the German Oscar nominee "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex". Very recently, he received his first Emmy nomination for Adrien Brody's "Houdini". But back to his work from the early 1980s here: The most interesting aspect is probably that this film is based on a real person. Christiane F. is still alive today (in her 50s) and was recently in the headlines again because she wrote a book and apparently her health isn't exactly in good shape. But still I wasn't too impressed. I am generally not a great fan of Edel. In my opinion, he very much goes for shocking sequences over great storytelling. He makes good choices in what real live events he puts on the screen, but what he makes out of these premises is rarely really convincing in my opinion. I believe this film could have been better with a more competent director in charge. Not recommended and the negative highlight was the lashing scene near the end. This almost sunk the authenticity from 120 minutes before that. Thumbs down.

This is quite the dark take on kids (teens) and drugs. But it also does not shine a particularly good light on parenting or how the state deals (dealt?) with certain individuals. When one gets addicted to drugs, they get sick. And it is really important to treat them and their sickness like that and not make or accuse them of criminal behavior. Even if that is what they resort to (like prostituting themselves to get the next fix).

Having said that, this is as already stated above quite the bleak outlook on the situation as it was and maybe still is in certain cities/areas. There has to be a drug awareness and more help. Something of course no one was really discussing in the 70s or even 80s. As society changes and we hopefully evolve and care more of each other, this will hopefully happen one day to a much bigger degree than we already have. We are on the right path I reckon (or I hope).

The performances are amazing to say the least and this looks as dirty as you probably feel watching this. Something the new adaptation of the source did not do. The new one (released 2021) goes fancy, but more on that on the show itself. Those who have seen this mostly hold it in hight regard - it feels and deals in reality. It slowly gets you into a world and you can fully understand how Christiane gets drawn into this world. And once you are in it, you can't see outside of it ... it's like with bubbles. If you are in one, it's going to be hard to escape them. Something the movie itself is able to do with the viewer too ...