Der Fan

"Der Fan" is a bone chilling and thought-provoking film about teenage obsession and the gradual descent into social isolation, despair and slow brooding insanity. Simone is a pretty young girl whose entire universe spins around a pop-singer named "R". She talks to him in her mind, fantasizes about their utopist future together, eagerly awaits letters that never come and completely neglects her school work and social life in favor of dreams about him. Simone eventually takes the initiative abandon everything without notice and hitchhikes to Munich in order to meet him at a concert. She finds her beloved "R" and, for a brief period of time, all her dreams come true as he fancies her, albeit guarding a haughty distance. But, of course, now that she finally found him, Simone isn't prepared to share her lover with the rest of the world anymore … "Der Fan" is an unimaginably slow-paced film and – please – don't immediately start to question it's cult reputation upon noticing absolutely nothing significant happens during what appears to be the entire film. Believe you me; it's all just patient and awkwardly uncomfortable building up towards one of the most shocking and revolting climaxes ever. This was an incredibly controversial release back in its home country Germany, and it's not too hard to see why. Without revealing too much about the infamous denouement, I can safely say this girl Simone single-handedly gives a whole new dimension to the term "obsessive groupie". Désirée Nosbusch gives away a hugely impressive performance as Simone and undeniably the other biggest strong point of the film – apart from the ending of course – is Rheingold's prototypic 80's electro pop music. If you're familiar with the oeuvre the relatively known 80's band Kraftwork ("The Model", "Autobahn", "Radioactivity"), you know pretty much what to expect. "Der Fan" isn't a movie for all tastes but certainly a curious collector's item for the more avid and open-minded cult fanatic to seek out.

I knew the music to this film for many years before I finally saw the film itself. I had discovered the hypnotic soundtrack by Rheingold on a second-hand LP and have had it on heavy rotation for many years. It's one of the best albums I know.

The music is certainly one of boons which helped to put this movie into another class and make it a classic. Hypnotically slowly, it follows the development of a teenybopping waif's obsession with a pop star spiraling out of control. It's one of those movies which you kind of have to see in a cinema because on TV you'd zap away after 10 minutes. But it richly rewards your for its slower moments.

Apparently there was a lot of controversy around lead actress Désirée Nosbusch's nudity scenes, which are admittedly surprisingly crass. But they are not exploitative and absolutely gel in with the movie. Kind of ironic that immediately after this scene there is one of extreme violence which went practically unnoticed by the public. A nice society we're living in.

It's very respectable that the director fought to keep these scenes in, as they are essential to the escalation of the story. They are actually a good example of how those scenes should be done realistically but without becoming pornographic or voyeuristic. It's a big fat shame that this controversy tainted the reception and popularity of this great movie.

And by the way, other than is often stated, the affair between star and fan doesn't end with the star "dropping" her after a night of carnality. It's not a case of "find'um, furp'um and flee". R. merely returns to his reality whereas Simone stays locked in her fantasy world.

Some tidbits about this movie: R. is actually played by the singer of the band Rheingold, Bodo Staiger, which furnished the soundtrack. The actress playing the fan, Désirée Nosbusch, was at the time already a popular "VJane" (i. e. hostess of a music show like the one that is shown in the movie). And the host of the TV show which Simone watches with her parents at the beginning of the movie is played by Joachim "Blacky" Fuchsberger, who in real life was the most popular TV host in Germany at the time.

Der Fan (1982)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Teenager Simone (Desiree Nosbusch) fantasizes about having a relationship with her favorite pop singer R (Bodo Steiger). She finally by chance ends up meeting him but their relationship takes a dangerous turn.

I guess the less said about the plot of DER FAN the better it will be for those who haven't seen it. This now cult item was released to a lot of controversy and it remains somewhat shocking today and especially the twist that happens so it's best that you don't know this big spoiler so I'm certainly not going to give it away here. Is the film worthy of all the hype and controversy? I would personally say no as I think there are much better films out there that deals with someone losing their mind but there's no question that there's enough here to recommend it.

I think one of the strongest things going for the film is the wonderful music score by Rheingold who manages to build a lot of dark atmosphere. I thought the score perfectly brought out the mind set of this teenage girl and I loved how it got deeper and darker as her mind began to slip. There's also some nice cinematography and some good editing that helps the film along. Director Eckhart Schmidt does a very nice job at slowly building up the slipping mind of this character. At 93- minutes the film actually feels much longer due to the slow style but for the most part I thought the director did good in making sure that it never got too boring.

The performance of Nosbusch is another reason to check the film out. The actress was probably just 16 or 17-years-old when she made this film so there are going to be some who object to the full nudity that she has throughout the final portion of the film. I think attacking the film for this would be rather narrow-minded even though the actress did stir up controversy when she tried to have the film pulled on its original release, although I wonder how much of this was just hype to sell the picture. Either way, she certainly delivers a convincing performance of someone slowly losing their mind. I thought she perfectly captured the naive nature of this character and when she finally goes off the deep end, you can believe what you're seeing.

i would also say that the biggest problem is that while the actress pulls off the mental state of the character, the direction really doesn't pull the psychological drama out of everything like he should have. This film falls well short of the psychological horrors of something like TAXI DRIVER. THE FAN certainly has plenty of flaws including a not-so-original story but at the end of the day the performances and the overall tone makes it worth watching.

First, lets get the fact that the electro soundtrack here is one of the best scores ever. Like EVER! And since this centers on a pop star it's pretty important. There's a repetitive style that works well with the leads repetitive obsession with her letters.

The story and performances are splendid and the ending works just fine for me. It's a story about depression and identity -- deserves a Gen Z following.

I will admit that this movie does drag on some bit but its well worth it for the last 20 minutes.

Its pretty much the same as Autopsy 1999 ending.. but pretty well done and for 1982 its a big surprise.