Christiane F [Christiane F – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo] **** (1981, Natja Brunckhorst, Thomas Haustein, Eberhard Auriga, Peggy Bussieck) – Classic Movie Review 9410

Director Uli [Ulrich] Edel’s 1981 German drama Christiane F [Christiane F – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo] is based on Christiane’s bestselling story as told to reporters at the Hamburg-based Stern weekly news magazine, and based on the book by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck.

Natja Brunckhorst plays Christiane, a Berlin early teenage girl in Seventies Berlin who turns to heroin and prostitution, and falls for a drug-abusing rent boy, Detlev (Thomas Haustein), in director Edel’s startling, dour, and upsetting film début.

Unable to chuck up their lifestyle, the duo mix with the foltsam and jetsam at Bahnhof Zoo, the rail station where all the druggies and hookers hang out.

Fresh performances, the in-your-face subject and the documentarist-style approach in faded colour produce a film of great power and fascination, though naturally it is not necessarily easy material to watch.

There is a notable soundtrack by David Bowie, including V2 Schneider, TVC15, Station to Station, Heroes / Helden, Look Back in Anger, Stay, Sense of Doubt, Boys Keep Swinging and Warszawa.

Also in the cast are Jens Kuphal, Rainer Wölk, Peggy Bussieck, Eberhard Auriga, Lothar Chamski, Jan Georg Effler and David Bowie as David Bowie.

The concert sequence starring David Bowie was filmed in New York in October 1980 at the Hurrah Club. Edel had to shoot the scenes in New York as Bowie was appearing on Broadway. The Hurrah Club was made to resemble a Berlin nightclub. The concert crowd scenes used footage from an AC/DC concert in West Germany.

Christiane F [Christiane F – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo] is directed by Uli [Ulrich] Edel, runs 138 minutes or 131 minutes (cut), is made by Solaris Film, Maran Film, Popular Filmproduktion, CLV-Filmproduktions and Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR), is released by Constantin Film (1981) (West Germany), New World Pictures (1981) (US) and 20th Century Fox (1981) (UK), is written by Herman Weigel and Uli Edel (additional writer), based on the book by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, is shot by Justus Pankau and Jürgen Jürges, is produced by Bernd Eichinger, Bertram Vetter, Hans Weth and Hans H Kaden (co-producer), is scored by Jürgen Knieper, and designed by Sabine Eichinger and Harald Muchametow.

Christiane F plays the Bowie album ChangesOneBowie but the song heard – the German version of Heroes / Helden – is not on that record.

Flotsam refers to a sunken vessel whose goods float to the surface of the sea as the result of a wreck or an accident, while jetsam designates any cargo intentionally discarded from a ship or wreckage.

Natja Brunckhorst next appeared in Querelle.

Uli Edel went on to Last Exit to Brooklyn, the disastrous Body of Evidence, and The Little Vampire.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9410

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