The Fan: Schatten des Ruhms

I was hooked into this movie after watching it for 5 minutes. Goldberg captures the movie- obsessed college kid existence very well (or at least, the whimsical movie-inspired lives that film students aspire to) with respect to Gray's past. Ribisi gives a gripping performance here, he's riveting as the insulated film star with artistic aspirations who slowly looses his grip on reality. What surprised me is Goldberg's talent as a director. He's really really good, got a great visual sense, but the overall structure of this movie reminded me of Mulholland Drive, similar to that movie, I left this one a bit confused. (though less so than MD, and with much more good will). Goldberg sends up the 400 blows, and a Jaques Demy musical, as well as self-conscious arty films, in the film within a film within a hallucination structure. Jason Lee is great & and creepy performance as a stalker. Franka Potente is funny, and it's great seeing her in a bigger role again. Elvis Costello has a hilarious cameo. I'd strongly recommend this, but you may want to see it a couple of times. It's a cool experiment, and I liked all the smoking, decor, and camera product placement.

The story follows the deteriorating mental state of movie star Gray Evans (Giovanni Ribisi). He's married to a movie star (Potente) but he essentially married her because he saw her in a movie (a french new wave musical) and is tortured by the fact that she clearly can't live up to the perfections of that character. So he stalked his own wife. And Jason Lee is stalking him. Gray's paranoia increases to the point that he imagines everyone in the world staring, speaking, trying to touch him and in this distressed state he seeks refuge in, of all places, a video store.

Here he meets a young video store clerk and his girlfriend, John and Jane (Joshua Jackson and Marisa Coughlan). They represent to him an ideal, the life he once had before fame. Where love was real and a commitment meant something. What does he do with this new found inspiration? He stalks them of course, buying the apartment opposite them and monitoring their every move. In the process he infects their relationship with his misery, resulting in their own break up. Using a little more of his own psychotic logic, Gray jumps in to save the day, solving the problem by beating the crap out of Jackson. Thus freeing himself from his demons, Gray is then able to move on to a happier place, the great movie theater in the sky...

Goldberg may be accused of solipsism. This is a movie about an actor, directed by an actor. And why not, aren't you supposed to write what you know? The main character is utterly self indulgent, he has a potentially great life but seems to be caught up in his own 'poor me' world. Bummer, successful movie star, married to another movie star, just how bad can life get?! Buy then again, who were the Montagues and the Capulets other than wealthy, self indulgent individuals? The same character flaw applies here as in Romeo and Juliet. The central character is not a philanthropist, he thinks of no-one other than himself and for that he pays the ultimate price. That's what makes this movie a modern day tragedy, a cautionary tale.

Sure, it speaks to actors more strongly than anyone else but there's a message in it for everyone. The grass is always greener.

Richly textured and layered, the film shows many influences from David Lynch to David Fincher. Goldberg gets magnificent perfomances from an astonishing cast. Ribisi is dazzling in his misery, Jared Harris and Eric Siegel hilarious, and Marisa Coughlan puts up an incredibly mature performance in a role that she could have coasted through. The cinematography is excellent, giving the film a look way more impressive than the budget.

This is the kind of movie that if you get it and it touches you, you won't want to stop watching it.

This film is what I fear a complete "own opinion" seeking movie. In my humble opinion the movie tries to hard to be and give you that "Arty" feeling. In the beginning it all seems to turn out to be nice and successful although it will turn out after about 30 min into "boring" and "too much" of it! A kinda OD effect. The over and over arty editing, special camera tricks and angles are slow and keep away the "drive", "speed", "tempo" a movie needs to keep your thoughts an interest locked onto the screen. All these special arty things don't do any credit onto the movie but have more the opposite effect which will arise. In my opinion though it's such a movie that needs each and everyone personal individual opinion. Some will love it and some will hate it. Best thing to do is have a go and make up your own idea. I know this isn't much of a help but that's just the way it is. I hate the movie but I can't assure that somebody else possible likes it. I wouldn't recommend the movie, that's the only thing I know for sure. For me the movie wasn't a huge success, I even hit the skip forward button after about 45 min to shorten the suffer of a slow movie before it becomes utterly boring and annoying. It's a pity after all of the fact that one of my fav "new generation" actresses plays into this flick. "Christina Ricci" she's one of those actresses who has a strong personality and knows how to cash in this ability. She has the power and knowledge just that perfect of how to carry her character as a complete movie! Even with all this credit onto her résumé she couldn't prevent that she looses total control on her character as the film itself in this case. A good attempt of the director as the actors but for me personal? "NOPE"!

4 outa 10 Dario/

My husband and I just watched this movie and we wanted to know if anyone could please explain what the movie meant?!? We kept expecting everything to be clarified at the end, but no such satisfaction was granted to us. I know a lot of you are into film festivals and whatnot, and are used to this kind of movie, but we are just completely lost. Will someone please explain to us what happened? We liked the cast, liked the acting, and appreciated the individuality they all possessed, but the end just did not click for us. We would appreciate any feedback that anyone can give to us, as we are just baffled as to what the point of the movie was. Thank you!

I saw this film at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.

Giovanni Ribisi is a movie star living what I hope is a caricature of a movie star's life (although in Hollywood, there seems to be no such thing as a caricature). He's becoming paranoid, seeing stalkers everywhere and suspecting his movie-star wife of infidelity (with Elvis Costello, no less). Then he meets a fan who seems so normal, and proceeds to screw up this man's life, all the while descending into some sort of madness, and flashing back to a time in his life when he seemed to have normalcy and real love. This film is a bit of a mess, actually. Lots of flashbacks and movie stars portraying movie stars portraying movie stars. It got a bit too "meta" at times, and the narrative was muddled. There was also an ambiguity about the whole fame thing, which is not very new, and frankly, hard for an audience to sympathize with.

I love movies and hate the movie business. So, apparently, does Adam Goldberg. So how come I didn't like this more?

(7/10)

P.S. Before the screening, I saw Giovanni Ribisi walking down the lineup filming the crowd with his camcorder. In addition to Ribisi and director Adam Goldberg, Franka Potente, Christina Ricci, and Shalom Harlow were also at the screening. Of course, after seeing the caustic way in which fans (and stars) are portrayed in the film, it would be just about impossible to say anything to any of them, even if you could get close.