Rating: 
Summary: Powerful and Gripping! - Why No Subtitles?
Review: If you are interested in the substance abuse genre, this movie is the most realistic, powerful, and disturbing I've seen. Compare this to the likes of "Days of Wine and Roses", "The Man With the Golden Arm" and "28 Days", and the others all seem lame and glossed over. The only film that I thought came close to the level of realism of "Chrstiane F." was "Panic in Needle Park".This film takes you to the horrifying depths of heroin addiction, as excruciatingly experienced by a German teenager and her "friends". Based on a true story from the 1970's Berlin drug scene, the title character is from a dysfuntional family who eventually falls into the grips of heroin addiction and prostitution by age 14. Great soundtrack, with Bowie (I especially liked the version of Heroes that is sung partly in German), great depiction of the 70's club scene in Berlin, which was rampant with drug use. Even though in color, has the gritty feel of a noir. The film also captures dead-on the desperation of addiction, and how the addicts life becomes all about the next shot. The film also does a great job of conveying the depravity and desolation of the Berlin Zoo train station, a haven for prostitues and addicts at the time. Based on a book of the same name (unfortunately, last I checked, the book was out of print), the movie of course does not go into as much detail (what movie based on a book does?) but nonetheless, this is a brutal, accurate portrait of the ravages of drug use. Two things, if you can find the book, buy it. The book was riveting and goes into much greater depth of the girls family background, and her early drug use pre-heroin addiction. Also the movie condenses her many "cold turkey" episodes into one or two instances, and the true horror of her withdrawals are much more graphic and real in the book. Secondly, I would have given this 5 stars if the movie were subtitled instead of dubbed. It takes a lot away from the film, and I would recommend waiting until it is released (hopefully) in German with subtitles. I was fortunate enough to have seen the film in the theatre in German with subtitles, and it made a big difference. A classic movie of this genre, a must see, even with the dubbing!
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting film
Review: Relatively unknown in America, the street/drug scene in Germany in the 80's. I think a lot of Americans might find this interesting, especially those who have traveled. I enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Cure for experimenting with drugs
Review: Seeing this movie in the theaters when it first came out, it is most likely the reason I never had any desire to experiment with hard-core drugs. Very depressing, very fatalistic, and scary. Set in a dismal underground Berlin it is most certainly not a movie that will cheer you up or entertain you. It will, however, keep your attention, give you insight in the junkie-world, depress you and make you understand this is NOT where you ever want to be. The David Bowie music underscores it all, making the movie easier to swallow. Fascinating - and well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: No subtitles and the dubbing is a disaster
Review: This film is important enough, both as a
document of the perils of pre-HIV drug abuse
and of pre-reunification Berlin, to warrant
a re-release with proper subtitles. Also, this
version is, I believe, slightly shorter than
the currently available German version - missing
scenes should be restored.
Rating: 
Summary: No Subtitles!!!
Review: This is a GREAT FILM!!! So why did they fail to add subtitles to the Region 1 DVD (maybe another Region has English subtitles?) What a shame, because the English dubbing is serviceable, but not great. Dubbing is always generally going to be inferior to subtitles, though both options should be available. The DVD only has the original German language (no subs) and English (dubbed. The film deserves a 5 out of 5, but the DVD gets a 2 for lack of subtitles. And for lack of any background info on the movie or the true story it is based on. It was based on the "Stern" book, "Christiane F. - wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo", transcripted and edited from tape recordings by Kai Hermann & Horst Rieck. There should have been an effort to give more background extras since this film is a GREAT German film, a standout, and I would have loved to have seen more on it. But I can't recommend the DVD - I would wait for a re-issue WITH SUBTITLES.
Rating:
Summary: Movie is good - DVD is bare-bones
Review: This is a gritty movie about one girl's experience in the Berlin underage prostitution/drug scene of the 70's. This is no glamorized Hollywood movie with mid-twenty year old actors as teens. This is a depressing movie, although ultimately it has a good ending, at least for Christiane. I read the 5-star book years and years ago, and after buying the DVD a few months back, I wanted to re-read the book as it has much more detail, and more cycles of getting clean and relapsing than shown in the movie. The book is out of print (natch!), but it is worth checking out used-book stores for it. The DVD has no extras at all, and as noted by others, no subtitles - you get it in original German, or second-rate dubbed English. I watch it both ways - German for the emotion, English for understanding. Still, highly recommended for a change from the Hollywood usual. Much David Bowie in the soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: Movie is good - DVD is so-so
Review: This is a gritty movie about one girl's experience in the Berlin underage prostitution/drug scene of the 70's. This is no glamorized Hollywood movie with mid-twenty year old actors as teens. This is a depressing movie, although ultimately it has a good ending, at least for Christiane. I read the 5-star book years and years ago, and after buying the DVD a few months back, I wanted to re-read the book as it has much more detail, and more cycles of getting clean and relapsing than shown in the movie. The book is out of print (natch!), but it is worth checking out used-book stores for it. The DVD has no extras at all, and as noted by others, no subtitles - you get it in original German, or second-rate dubbed English. I watch it both ways - German for the emotion, English for understanding. Still, highly recommended for a change from the Hollywood usual. Much David Bowie in the soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Incredible!
Review: This is a movie that is incredibly powerful. I read the book in English many years ago, and it was enough to put a serious scare into me. Never touched drugs as a result of that book. When I moved to Berlin in 1987, I read the book again, this time in German (the English translation is pretty mediocre in retrospect) - the impact was brutal. I made a point of visiting the actual locations in the story, and this has made the entire story more indelible.
Now to the movie (this refers to the Region 2 German release). Although it does not follow the book faithfully in every detail, enough of the events are depicted to tell the full story. It is difficult to imagine being desperate enough to sink to such levels, but this film manages to convey it in such a way, that it is all too real. The young actors especially do an amazing job (and for you German-speakers, the accents, dialects and slang are right on!).
The bottom line is that this is a film that you will never forget.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST MOVIE CONCERNING HEROIN ADDICTION EVER MADE
Review: this movie is a must to see HOWEVER if possible PLEASE try to obtain the UK version so that you can watch this in german with English subtitles.IT REALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE and the US version is also cut a little here and there. I have watched both version of this movie and the english overdubs are horrible. I fell for Natja Brunckhorst in a big way in this movie. THIS IS A MUST to see-check it out
Rating:
Summary: Too bad about the bad dubbing; try region 2
Review: When the Region 2 version (UK) of this film became available two years ago, I jumped at it, knowing that I had set my old computer DVD player to region 2. Now that I've found that the American release is slightly shortened and is only dubbed, I'm thankful that I ordered my copy from amazon.co.uk! The UK version is in the original German and has excellent subtitles... If you have a region 2 player, I'd suggest visiting amazon's sister site... My five stars relates to the UK release...
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