Christiane F Review (1981)

	Christiane F
Year:	1981
Director:	Uli Edel
Stars:	Natja Brunkhorst, Thomas Haustein, Jens Kruphal, Eberhard Auriga, Peggy Russiek, Lothar Chamski, Rainer Woelk, Uwe Diderich
Genre:	Drama
Rating:	4 (from 1 vote)
Review:	A thirteen year old German girl (Natja Brunkhorst) in Berlin falls in with a bad crowd - by the time she is fourteen, she is a heroin addict and a prostitute. Hermann Weigel adapted this European wallow in drug-fuelled misery from the cult novel of the same name. As Christiane, the scrawny, lank-haired Natja puts in a convincing performance, but this film is something of an ordeal to watch, which, to be fair, is probably what it's makers intended. It's also at least half an hour too long, the "drugs are bad" message will have hit home by around the ninety minute mark, if not before. How about a film which shows people having a really great time getting high, for a change? Irresponsible? Yeah, probably. But on the strength of Christiane F, there's nothing much to say about hard drug abuse other than "don't do it" - this film isn't really too far away from those "awful warning" public information films like Apache. For some reason there's some concert footage of David Bowie, and many of his songs on the soundtrack. There's also one hell of a vomiting scene.
Reviewer:	Graeme Clark
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Uli Edel (1947 - )

German director who deals in sometimes controversial subject matter. His first film was 1981's intense drug drama Christiane F , which brought him international notoriety; his next feature was the equally controversial Last Exit to Brooklyn. The erotic thriller Body of Evidence (with Madonna) was one of 1993's most derided films and most of Edel's other work has been in TV, including episodes of Twin Peaks, Oz, Tales from the Crypt and Homicide. Also directed the family hit The Little Vampire, true crime story The Baader Meinhof Complex, rap turkey Time You Change and Nicolas Cage horror Pay the Ghost.

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