Christiane F. - We children from Bahnhof Zoo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Christiane F. - We children from Bahnhof Zoo |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1981 |
| length | 131 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ulrich Edel |
| script | Herman Weigel |
| production |
Bernd Eichinger , Hans Weth |
| music |
Jürgen Knieper , David Bowie (songs) |
| camera |
Justus Pankau , Jürgen Juerges |
| cut | Jane Seitz |
| occupation | |
| |
Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo is a German feature film from 1981. The film drama , which is also a film biography , tells the story of the drug-addicted adolescent Christiane Felscherinow . The film was based on the book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo , which was published in 1978 with the help of Christiane F. based on tape records and research by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck .
action
The film tells the life of Christiane Felscherinow from Berlin-Gropiusstadt . Around 1975 she first came into contact with drugs through friends . She tells her mother that she would stay with her friend Kessi, but goes to the “ Sound ” disco almost every weekend . There she began to take drugs for the first time - initially only LSD and cannabis , until she switched to heroin . The onset of addiction is soon no longer be controlled, so that Christiane, to be able to finance their drug use, after all, begins at the age of 14 years, the Zoo Station of prostitution pursue. Her friend Detlef, also a hustler and, like her, addicted to heroin, can't stop her.
Christiane's mother doesn't know about her daughter's addiction until it's almost too late. She arranges for Christiane and Detlef to withdraw from the drug at home. However, both of them succumb to their addiction again on the first "clean" day. As a result, it becomes more and more difficult for Christiane to finance this and she prostitutes herself again. Detlef moves in with his suitor after his friend Axel, with whom he had lived up to then, took the “ golden shot ”. Christianes and Detlef's relationship falls apart. When Christiane reads in the newspaper that her best friend Babsi, who wanted to go into rehab, died of her drug addiction at the age of 14, she is appalled and decides to take the “golden shot” too. She survived her suicide attempt and was taken by her mother to her grandma and aunt in a village near Hamburg. The film ends with her statement that she has been clean for a year and a half. Atze and Axel died of their drug addiction that same year. Christiane is worried about Detlef and would like to give him some of her strength.
background
The film was originally a project by the director Roland Klick , who after a long period of preparation got into such an argument with the producers two weeks before shooting that the production company Solaris then had the film directed by Uli Edel .
The film, shot on original locations and partly with amateur actors, is a study of the drug and prostitution milieu .
Director Uli Edel received support from David Bowie , whose concert in Berlin the real Christiane F. had attended. These scenes were shot especially for the film and mixed with archive footage. In the film scene in which Christiane F., played by actress Natja Brunckhorst , is standing right in front of the concert stage and is impressed by pop star David Bowie, she sings the song Station to Station , which is on the 1976 album Station to Station . When Christiane F. and her friend Detlef, who was addicted to heroin, later meet again in the Sound discotheque, the Bowie song TVC 15 from the same album was playing loudly over the music club's system .
The basis for the film was the biography We Children from Bahnhof Zoo , which was created in 1977/78 with the help of Christiane F. based on tape protocols and research by Stern employees Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck. The shooting for the film took place from August to November 1980, the world premiere was on April 2, 1981. During the official world premiere, Christiane Felscherinow who was present left the cinema in the middle of the screening, as she like the acting representation of her life on the screen Felscherinow said on May 15, 2007 on the ARD talk show Maischberger , could not bear, for example, the portrayal of her first sexual intercourse with her childhood friend Detlef, played in the film by the two actors Natja Brunckhorst and Thomas Haustein. Felscherinow also fled the cinema to avoid questions from journalists and visitors after the premiere.
The realistic depictions of “fixing”, Christiane's unadorned staged experiences with her suitors and the frankly shown scenes of a cold turkey - in one scene Natja Brunckhorst as Christiane F. has to vomit against a wall for minutes, in another she falls with him Head into a toilet bowl that the prop masters had made up as completely filthy - "had never been shown like this in German cinemas and shocked a whole generation of parents".
In Great Britain and the USA the film was cut heavily for the old VHS version as well as for other public screenings (by around four minutes), as some scenes were harmful to young people. The completely uncut DVD version was only released in these two countries from the age of 18, while in Germany it is available from the age of 16.
Reviews
“The film - based on the tape recordings of a 15-year-old - differs positively from speculative products of a similar subject in its seriousness and the effort to understand it, but it does not really know how to free itself from the clichés about young people, drug consumption and prostitution. Every now and then he also succumbs to the glaring fascination of the milieu. "
“I don't want to be unfair. Nobody will want a film that drives more children to drugs and prostitution. The secret idolization of the character Christiane F., which persuaded the Moers Castle Theater last autumn not to perform the stage adaptation he had ordered, does not take place in Ulrich Edel's film. But that alone is not enough for 132 minutes. "
"The film 'Christiane F.' bypasses almost all the facts that are necessary to know in order to understand the genesis of drug-dependent behavior. Where the script dictates prevention pedagogy, the scenic realization pursues a questionable, because implausible, deterrent strategy, which has long been proven to be ineffective both in drug prevention and in general education. Worse still, it may even have a stimulating effect.
This tendency is supported not least by an uncritical aestheticization of drug addiction, which in some scenes almost becomes the heroization of the main characters. "
Quotes from the movie
- “I do that once and then it's over. I have myself completely under control. ”
(Christiane F., played by actress Natja Brunckhorst, when the girl sniffs heroin through her nose for the first time after attending the David Bowie concert) - "I just want to know how you feel like that."
(Christiane F. to her heroin-addicted friend Detlef in the Sound discotheque) - “Today I made seven suitors in one hour. Great huh? Seven in an hour, a lot of money. "
(Babsi to her friend Christiane F. on the baby line) - "Hey, do you have a print for me? Ey, you have pupils like sharpened pin heads and you tell me not to push anymore. You just want to screw everything up on your own. You, I want to be on a level with you. "
(Christiane F. to her friend Detlef on the baby line)
Awards
In 1981 the film won the golden screen . In the same year Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo received an award at the Montreal World Film Festival in the Most Popular Film category.
See also
literature
- Christiane F .: We children from Bahnhof Zoo. Written down from tape protocols by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck. With a foreword by Horst-Eberhard Richter . 50th edition. Gruner & Jahr, Hamburg 2008, 324 pp., ISBN 3-570-02391-5 or ISBN 978-3-570-02391-4 .
- Hans-Jürgen Tast: Film. ... we children from Bahnhof Zoo. Stimulating multimedia climate. On the sub-story of a market success . In: “medium” (Frankfurt / a. M.), No. 5/1981, pp. 1, 25–29, 5 b / w photos
Web links
- Christiane F. - We children from Bahnhof Zoo on the website of the German Film Institute
- Christiane F. - We Children from Bahnhof Zoo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Christiane F. - We children from Zoo Station at Filmportal.de
- Mark Allen: Detlev Lives! In: vice.com . June 3, 2010 (English, interview with Thomas Haustein, who plays Detlef in the film and was never seen in a film again).
- Christiane F. - We Children from Bahnhof Zoo at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Keiper: Christiane F. - We children from the Bahnhof Zoo. Deutsches Filminstitut , June 12, 2001, archived from the original on August 15, 2017 ; accessed on August 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Stern No. 51/1989
- ↑ Christiane F. - We children from the Bahnhof Zoo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 6, 2016 .
- ↑ Hans-Christoph Blumenberg : Cinema: "Christiane F. - We children from the Zoo station": Particularly valuable. In: Die Zeit 15/1981. April 3, 1981. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Friedrich Koch : "Christiane F. - We children from the Bahnhof Zoo" a film for drug education? In: Johannes Bastian (Ed.): Drug Prevention and School. Basics, field reports, teaching examples. Hamburg 1992, page 157 ff.