Requiem for a dream vs Christiane F.

To compare the film Christiane F with Requiem for a dream, is like comparing art with the real life experience. Both films are highly acclaimed, but I feel that Christiane F captures the reality of teenage truths in such a realistic manner, that it speaks form the gutters and with no hidden agendas - its life at its worst once imagined by an innocent teenage girl to be the real life she wanted. It hits hard - and is true about so many teenage disasters. I had two of my scholars go the same way, and it cannot be coloured in with artistic flair and musical genius such as was the case in the brilliant film Requiem for a dream. It is what kids are doing when they seek that acceptance - may these two films never be archived. MAy there be many more such masterpieces that will remind us of what life could have been like if we ourselves did not say enough now - I wanna go straight.

Since I am german-born (in West-Berlin) and I have visited it (Wall still there) in 1980 (even though I lived in Frankfurt at the time) I can fully identify with the style, language and atmosphere. So I am biased. I saw both movies very carefully and I think that Christiane F. is the better movie (so does Roger Ebert BTW).
Requiem feels polished and "produced". Sure the main actors in Christiane F. are just a little bit prettier than they would have been in real life, but that just means translating it into movie language. Also: a low/middle class Berlin accent would be impossible to understand for anyone in Germany outside Berlin, so they opted for a toned down Berlin accent for the main characters (Christiane, Detlev etc.) and a more pronounced one for side characters. Excellent!

Christiane F. wins - hands down. No glorifying, no split screen, no artsy montages to tell an abstract tale of injecting and getting the flash. Just pure, raw fact.

BTW: I don't care much about Jared Leto anyway - sorry folks. Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans are fine though, great work. Ellen Burstyn is fantastic, but somehow this movie isn't about her - her role seems to be just a parallel/metaphor so the movie can hammer home its point through artsy cross-cuts: addiction is bad. What else is new?

She couldn't contract HIV at all, mate.
The movie is set in the late 70s, a few years before the first cases of HIV were reported in Europe.

You do have a good point...
"Even though they chose the life they led, it felt as though they were being exploited."

You are absolutely right. I also think that they were exploited in more than one way. As children, they were misdirected, without a doubt. Though they weren't babies, they probably lacked the required guidance from their parents. I would like to add that this is also an eye opener for all the parents out there. Particularly because "some parents" tend to give up looking after their kids, once they reach a certain age, which is a horrible misjudgement. Movies like these will remind them to have a little bit more focus.
Without a doubt, this is by far the stronger story, particularly because it is true and it involved kids at the same time. People are more sensitive towards seeing a child ruining his/her life, which of course is very chaotic. The cinematic elements used in this movie, paints a far more horrific picture about drugs and drug usage.

"In Requiem, everyone was an adult and made their choices to "get ahead" in life. Or trying to take a shortcut to whatever goal they were striving for. Kind of like they made their beds and now have to lie in them."


Once again, you are right. Clearly making the story less sensitive to the human eye.

But...
As a movie, I think Requiem is better because of some other elements, such as acting, music, storytelling, etc. Although it is a movie that involved drugs, that doesn't necessarily mean that it shouldn't contain anything else. (I am not saying that Christiane F. didn't contain anything but drugs, but a few scenes were 'too much' in my opinion). To me, Requiem was a more complete 'movie' that contained better cinema usage.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not arguing, just merely stating why I chose Requiem over Christiane F.

Cheers!!!

I don't really see the need to make a choice. They are both near the top of a very short list of movies in this genre (specifically H or opiate movies). While these two are probably my favorites, I also love Candy, Panic in Needle Park, Trainspotting, Permanent Midnight and even Basketball Diaries (but this is probably because I loved the book so much when I was younger before having any first hand knowledge of opiates).