Years
before Larry Clark’s Kids dove
headfirst into the drug (and sexual) abuses committed by juvenile delinquents, Last Exit to Brooklyn director Uli Edel
made one Hell of a debut with his searing and unforgettable chronicle of the 1970s
Berlin music/drug scene Christiane F.
A profoundly disturbing swan dive into
filth and vermin, the cult classic continues to be referenced in movies and pop
culture including The Green Inferno
and most recently Climax. And yet the film itself, one of a kind which
could be never made with today’s child labor laws, remains a timeless time
capsule of sorts by being about an ongoing epidemic afflicting youths to this
day despite taking place in a bygone era.
Based
upon a series of tape-recorded interviews with the title figure which were
published in the German periodical Stern
before being shaped into a best-selling book by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, Christiane F. stars Natja Brunkhorst in
her acting debut (14 years old at the time) as a teenager introduced by her
friends to the West Berlin rock and roll scene which is in preparation for a
forthcoming David Bowie concert. Snuck
in by her friend Kessi (Daniela Jaeger) before meeting soon-to-be partner in
crime Detlef (Thomas Haustein), Christiane is quickly introduced to LSD, pills
and finally heroin. It doesn’t take long
for the young girl to start frequenting the Bahnhof Zoo, a train station
infamous for being a hotspot for drug trafficking and prostitution, in search
of her latest fix.
Hard
and heavy, the low-budget mean and lean indie is largely boosted by the
presence of both David Bowie and the musician’s original score for the film,
co-composed by Wings of Desire composer
Jürgen Knieper. Shifting rapidly between original songs and electronic
orchestrations as well as sharp piano cues that are every bit as chilling as
the Ligeti keyboard strumming permeating Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, it’s a soundtrack that proves to be haunting,
disturbing and powerful. Much like Lynch’s
Lost Highway, it’s a film with an
arguably stronger following by music lovers than filmgoers.
Punctuated
by the grimy aesthetic lensed by Funny
Games cinematographer Jürgen Jürges, the sense of needing to
take a shower after watching this film is aided most specifically by the makeup
artist Colin Arthur. Best known for his
aging makeup effects in Kubrick’s 2001: A
Space Odyssey, here he creates gangrenous sores, pale skin, dark cycles
under the eyes and drowning sweat on the actors’ faces. So convincing are the makeup effects that you
have a hard time differentiating the actors from the real-life junkies who were
brought onto the film hired as extras.
With all these elements in place, the backstreet alleyways and
subterranean tunnels of West Berlin looks like a brick-and-mortar septic field.
Special
attention of course must be paid to the young cast who were more or less asked (with
the then-dated rule of only needing parental consent for such scenes) to go
above and beyond anything any child actor should ever have to do for a
movie. Replete with graphic nudity,
extraordinarily realistic images of needles puncturing skin and flesh, smoking,
snorting, drinking, vandalizing, explicit sex scenes and paradoxically one of
the most harrowing withdrawal sequences ever staged for a film, the underage
cast truly goes the full distance for something which would be impossible now.
Though
much of the cast consisted of first-timers and non-actors, the central focus is
on the two leads played by Natja Brunkhorst and Thomas Haustein. In an on-screen co-dependent relationship
reminiscent of the equally sordid junkie couple Sid and Nancy, Brunkhorst and Haustein go straight-to-Hell together
with more than a few scenes of both actors depicted in sexual situations performed
for drug money. Raising the eyebrows
higher than Larry Clark’s films though far less lascivious in intent
comparatively, the scenes in question forever mark the film with a controversy
some viewers will not be able to think their way around. That said, the performances are fearless and
though Haustein would never act in film again, Brunkhorst as the leading lady is
still active in film today including work as a director at one point.
Released
to both critical acclaim and commercial success, Christiane F. was also understandably a controversial film almost
immediately. Much repulsion and outrage
was made over the aforementioned scenes of minors involved in drugs and sex and
the real Christiane F. herself thought the film had the unintended consequence
of making the junkie Hell lifestyle appealing to young viewers. While debatable, I’d be hard pressed to find
anyone who aspires to live life quite like this film’s title character in what
is ostensibly a non-judgmental character study designed to capture the essence
of the West Berlin rock-and-roll/drugs scene in microcosm. More than anything, you’ll never be able to
listen to David Bowie’s Heroes the
same way again without feeling your soul being haunted by spirits of the dead.
--Andrew Kotwicki
