Christiane F.

Christiane F.
by Uli Edel

Our Price: $39.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $32.29 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

DVD Cover Information

Movie Reviews of Christiane F.

Movie Review: A Movie About Youth
Summary: 5 Stars

More specifically, the movie works because it shows a variety of human emotions: Christiane's anger at her mother; her boredom in the grey concrete world of West-Berlin; her tender love for Detlef and pure desperation in the end. We really get a glimpse of her world and why she gets into drugs, even though everybody warns her about it. It's not simple peer pressure, but her own desparate need to belong and her compassion with Detlef that drives Christiane. Despite its length (130 min.) and the limited number of locations, the movie keeps you glued to the screen because it relies on competent, subtle acting rather than beating the viewer over the head with fake "dramatic" scenes. In contrast to most movies today, music is used rather sporadically, yet all the more effectively. My favorite scene is in the beginning when the youth gang runs through an empty mall, while we hear David Bowie's "Heroes" in full blast. I couldn't convey more effectively the sheer enthusiasm of being young and alive. Director Uli Edel (whose oevre includes other highs such as Last Exit to Brooklyn and lows as Body of Evidence; he also directed one Twin Peaks episode) effectively switches between fast and slow motion, dialog and image driven scenes. This is the perfect example of a well-paced movie.

Even to those English speakers whose Highschool German has become rusty, this is well-worth the effort of finding it. Once you got the gist of the story in the dubbed version, listen to the sheer emotion in the original voices. Christiane F. is one of those rare movies that haunt you long after watching it.