‘Christiane F.,’ Which Ebert Called ‘One of the Most Horrifying Movies Ever,’ Returns to Theaters in 4K

“Christiane F.,” nan 1981 cult classical nightmare imagination of a teen girl’s descent into heroin addiction successful West Berlin, makes moreover “The Panic successful Needle Park” look for illustration a locomotion successful the, well, you know.

German filmmaker Uli Edel adapted a harrowing nonfiction book by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck pinch testimonies from users who haunted nan drug-cruising spot astatine Berlin’s Zoo Station, including from Christiane Felscherinow, who was 13 erstwhile she fell into nan incorrect crowd and started shooting up amid nan underground nine scene. For nan film version, Edel formed then-unknown character Natja Brunckhorst (who would later constitute her ain memoir astir her acquisition making “Christiane F.”) arsenic nan David Bowie-worshipping teen addict experimenting pinch first emotion and supplier use. Felscherinow yet became an character and musician herself.

Now, a caller 4K restoration from Janus Films of “Christiane F.” opens astatine Film astatine Lincoln Center starting June 20, pinch screenings connected nan West Coast astatine nan Los Feliz Theatre successful Los Angeles. Edel takes a decidedly non-moralistic attack to capturing nan existent drug-addled younker who populated Berlin successful nan ’70s; astatine 1 point, Christiane (Brunckhorst) stumbles successful a bleary daze done a passageway lined pinch strung-out punks, needles hanging retired of their arms and their eyes glazed over. It’s 1 of galore documentary-like moments successful “Christiane F.,” arsenic nan filmmakers captured existent users successful nan underpass. As for nan schematic nudity among minors seen successful nan film, that’s now illegal, but nan first-time actors’ parents consented astatine nan time.

Justus Pankau and Jürgen Jürges’ cinematography apt hasn’t looked this shockingly vivid since nan film’s 1981 release, erstwhile Roger Ebert called it “one of nan astir horrifying movies I person ever seen.” Edel captures nan jet-black streets astatine nighttime and nan bunker-like postwar subterranean of Berlin successful a measurement that feels oddly romanticist and nostalgia-worthy — particularly nether nan gleaming neon signage of nan trendy discotheque Sound — without ever romanticizing a youth-culture-killing supplier epidemic.

‘Christiane F.’ Janus Films

“Christiane F.” besides stands retired for its soundtrack, supplied by David Bowie pinch songs from nan albums “Heroes” (including nan title track, playing almost triumphantly arsenic Christiane joins a marauding set of thoroughfare kids wreaking havoc successful a mall), “Station to Station,” “Lodger,” and “Low.” There’s moreover an excerpted David Bowie concert, primitively changeable successful New York, juxtaposed pinch assemblage shots from an AC/DC performance successful West Germany. Bowie’s inclusion makes for a cutting opposition betwixt nan doomy glamor of Berlin’s late-’70s nine segment pinch nan acheronian thrumming beneath it.

Edel, moving from Herman Weigel’s screenplay, neither shies distant from nan brutality of Christiane’s plunge into underage activity activity nor nan cold-turkey withdrawal hellhole she experiences pinch her fellow (Thomas Haustein), wherever they extremity up scrambling desperately for different fix. Once cleanable and pinch thief from her mother to get sober, Christiane thinks she tin grip 1 much changeable successful nan arm, but that proves intolerable arsenic she’s thrown into much tragic circumstances.

“Christiane F.” functions connected its ain position arsenic a portion of provocative axenic cinema, but it’s besides successful a societal speech pinch nan emergence of cautionary tales for illustration nan arguable American “memoir” “Go Ask Alice” from 1971, which charts a 15-year-old girl’s self-destruction and was later deemed fiction. The book was utilized arsenic an acquisition instrumentality to pass kids disconnected supplier use, a contented of agenda-driven anti-drug creation that began pinch nan American exploitation movie “Reefer Madness” successful nan 1930s, and of people continued pinch myriad after-school specials. (Helen Hunt successful “Desperate Lives,” anyone?) “Christiane F.” inadvertently mightiness person served nan aforesaid purpose, but Edel isn’t chasing civilized instruction here. He’s capturing a moment, a milieu, and it’s 1 that nan real-life Christiane yet pulled herself retired of, dissimilar galore of her friends.

Janus Films‘ 4K restoration of “Christiane F.” opens astatine Film astatine Lincoln Center connected Friday, June 20.