Especially these days when you go to any party where well to do career people get together and within twenty minutes someone invites you to snort a line? Heroin is the last hush hush drug left in our culture. Maybe its best left out of peoples thoughts. Remember people do not shock as easily as they did back then. I know my kids will not be allowed to watch this.
shareRomaticizes? NO WAY! Im young, and I've seen it and my friends have seen it. I leaves a big impact on you. It makes you think "why do this to yourself" and so on. It's scary.
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*Because i can*
...Yeah. Watching Christiane and her friends rinsing out needles in a public toilet; having sweaty, vomitous withdrawl convulsions; giving oral sex to strangers for money to support said habit (they didn't show it, but they were talking about it); and sharing dirty syringes really made me want to go out there and shoot up.
The best I could do was to try to quiet my mind from screaming, "AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS..."
It's horrific, not romantic in the least bit.
In fact, I was just thinking about how great that movie is for NOT romanticizing drug use. It's the one of the first films I've seen that's not like "Don't do drugs, mmmkay?" It's realistic and harrowing, not an after-school special like most others.
Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 'cos its bugger all down here on Earth.
Oh yeah!!!
I am going to watch it with my girlfriend... So romantic.
Please tell me which part you loved the most, please do.
And you are right, it is too romantic for kids, better left with adults.
Please watch it for heavens sake. If you already did, do it during a time you are awake.
There is something very wrong with the OP if he thinks this movie gives a romantic portrayl of drugs.
Sure all the characters seem close knit together but dont you see that the only thing they have in common is the drugs and having to sell themself to get money for it. If you call that romantic, well then im speechless.
I think the OP last went to a party in 1988. "Well to do people offering you a line" within minutes at every party? Do they have popped collars, izods and listen to Huey Lewis also?
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I think people are being terribly harsh about your post. I can see why you'd think this film romanticizes drugs. Surely it wasn't done on purpose because yes it is supposed to show the downfall of a generation spiralling down a drug path, but at the same time the scene and the people and the music all entwined kind of does give it a light. More of a light than it should. If I were a kid watching this movie, what would really scare me out of doing it is if you took the kids to a library and then back to their overbearing parents house. If you're placing these kids in the "best disco in europe" with stars like Bowie... um it's a bit romanticized. It makes you want to be a part of that. Just like Christiane wanted to feel what Detlev felt. I'm not saying it romanticized drugs I can just see where Lollipop4598 was going with this. Most scenes gave me chills as to how much these kids were living freely at such a young age. They may have taken the wrong path but they sure as hell had fun doing it.
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Well put. Sorry if I made it come out ignorant but I seem to see what you're saying and agree. I didn't mean to say they were having fun all the time, I was just saying for kids this was a fun and exciting world to enter and yes the ending is the farthest thing from fun. Thanks for clearing up!
shareI think the movie romanticizes drug use.
It also gives an interesting insight in 1970's-1980's german youth counter-culture.
The counter culture of this time was very entwined with drug use.It's natural for a teenager to be drawn to counter-culture.
Saying that if all you have ever seen is films like 'trainspotting.' or similar,and then you smell heroin in real life ,there is a good chance its beauty will take you more by surprise.It's aroma is very alluring.(opium is a close smell to heroin cooking.)
The reason i'm saying this is if you believe that heroin use is just a horror story then you are setting yourself up for a fall when you come into contact with the drug.
Initially in can give a person deep insight into themselves and their ego.
If you are full of yourself and you try to withdraw from heroin, you will be humbled by the experience. If you share that experience with others they will see you at your most emotionally naked state.this is a far cry from how society sells us its wares.
The way the film focuses on the black market created by making heroin illegal is a profound insight.it's not the culture of children , its the political and economic background they are thrown into.
I know that when it came out I was a 12-year-old girl and was *dying* to see it - I was obsessed with David Bowie and since this film used his music and seemed really dark and yet, yes, glamorous, I would have given anything to see it. Of course there's no way my Mom would have let me and the years went by and I never ended up seeing it. Now, if I had actually seen it then at age 12 and seen how her life deteriorates over the course of the film and everything that seemed romantic turns to *beep* I would likely have taken away a different message. I had forgotten about it until I saw a reference to it this morning in an article about David Bowie. I felt a surge of nostalgia and immediately came here to read about it. I'm going to see if I can find it for streaming somewhere.
shareI seriously do not get some of the ppl here. There is nothing romantic about this movie. Perhaps some scene's create an atmosphere, but that does not make it romantic.
I just do not see how you can say that a movie showing how a 14 year old girl gets addicted and ends up in the arms of pedophiles to be able to pay for her addiction, is romantic.
Now,... it has been a while that I have seen this movie (about ten years), but I looked it here up, because we had a discussion about David Bowie. This movie has always been at the back of my mind over the years. It is one of the best drug movies out there. It is 1000% better movie then Trainspotting, that horrible commercial movie with all those quick flashy scene's.
Perhaps you mistake the slow pace with romance,... but that is not the intend. Beauty in cinematography does not always mean romance. It sets the stage for the story. And this movie shows alot of story.
But if the OP lives in an environment where drug use is common amongst career people,... then I would suggest a different career,... Or even better: Call the police each time you see such things happen. The only reason these things remain hush hush, is because ppl seemingly are unable to complain about it to the users and throw it all out in the open.
You SHOULD show your kids this movie. It shows how life can become if you screw up. You think kids know nothing? Kids know more then you think. Especially these days where they communicate via the internet en cellulars on a practicle minute to minute base. I was talking to my ten year nephew and was in awe that he already knew what a bisexual was. Sure he does no know everything about sex, but at ten the details of these kinds of things are already starting to drip in. He has a 14 years old nephew and they play with eachother sometimes,... so that is how it happens also.
Keeping your kids in a shell, hoping the world will not catch up to them, is litteraly the most silly thing you can do.
Movies like 'Christiane F.' and 'Kids' (the one about AIDS) are exactly the kind of movies you should show them. Because then you can discuss it with them and get it all out in the open. You will know what they know and how they feel about it,... and it prepares ground for whenever in the future it may become a reality in their lives. Because reality will catch up eventually, IMHO.
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