DER FAN

Simone (Desiree Nosbusch) is a German teenager who's obsessed with the latest pop star sensation, the enigmatically named R (Bodo Steiger).

She frequently bunks off school to visit her local post office, hoping in vain that she will have received a reply to any of the countless letters she's been busy bombarding him with. Each time, the postman cushions her disappointment with a warm smile. That is, until the day she accuses him of lying to her and attacks him, pulling his hair and emptying his post sack onto the pavement.

This is just one example of her commitment to getting close to her idol. She's also prone to fighting with her father over control of the TV remote control when R performs live on a chat show, and leaves school altogether when she starts to suspect that her letters are being intercepted: this last act allows her to stake out the post office night and day.

Eventually, after still not receiving a reply from R, Simone decides that she must meet him. Sick of fantasising over how he must probably live - flanked by gorgeous naked blondes on the grounds of his epic estate, according to her imagination - she sets off hitchhiking her way to Munich where she's heard he's due to make another TV appearance, on the programme "Top Pop".

At about the halfway point of the film, Simone gets to finally meet R outside the studio. She faints, which in turn leads to him taking her indoors and inviting her to stick around and watch the show. What happens afterwards makes for a compelling final 40 minutes - but that's all I'll say on the matter...

Eckhart Schmidt's DER FAN is an extremely odd film. In a good way. It's glacially paced for its first half, playing out like an arty European drama – which it is, of course – propelled by the young fanatic’s narration, squirm-inducing scenes of her snogging a poster of her hero in her bedroom, long wide shots of lonely German streets that bring to mind the likes of ANGST and I STAND ALONE …

The final third cranks everything up by several gears, offering a dark insight into obsessive sexual psychosis that is as grimly humorous as it is harrowingly plausible.

Echoes of TAXI DRIVER can be evidenced in the slow-build toward central character meltdown, including a Travis Bickle-esque physical transformation and even an ambiguous final moment, literally seconds before the closing credits roll.

Elsewhere, feminists will lap up the subtext of a besotted female who finds empowerment in a seemingly hopeless situation – though to elaborate any further here would result in a massive spoiler, given that plot is so deceptively simple.

The deliberate pacing, beautifully controlled camerawork and luscious exterior photography are all huge strengths. As is Schmidt’s intelligent, restrained screenplay. But the real star here is the demure, and yet slightly ‘off’ Nosbusch. Remarkably, she was only 17 when the film was made, and yet her performance is amazingly assured and quirky. Whether spending the last third of the film naked or expressing emotions such as elation, embarrassment, heartbreak and anger with equal conviction, she’s riveting to watch.

Steiger is necessarily cold as the object of her affection, ruthless in business and in love. Their pairing is inevitably ill-fated, but Schmidt’s talent is to keep the way things pan out from ever being wholly predictable.

Some viewers may have a problem with the fact that nothing much of note happens in the first half, certainly not in terms of "horror". But stick with it, because DER FAN is a fascinating, claustrophobic and strangely melancholic piece that will likely stay with you for a long time afterwards.

Nosbusch tried to stop the film from being released in Germany, upon seeing stills of her naked self in the press release. She failed – but only after a high profile court case had tainted the film’s reputation. In the UK, it was released on video minus 15 seconds of footage wherein one character’s lips slowly glide over the young actress’ pubic bush, the BBFC concerned by the fact that the scene involved a female of less than 18 years of age. Said scene, without giving too much away, is pivotal. It’s also a curious sequence, at once stylised, erotic and troubling in the sense that you’re aware of the actress’ youth and subsequent attempts to self-ban the footage, and the manipulation of such a gullible, willing ‘victim’ makes for uncomfortable conceptual viewing.

DER FAN is presented uncut on CMV Laservision's blu-ray, in anamorphic 1.78:1 and in full 1080p HD. The file format is an MPEG4-AVC one.

Though darker scenes sometimes look a tad faded and occasional clips do exhibit a softer sheen, the bulk of the film looks nice. The print employed is clean, colours are strong and detail is pleasing to the eye. DNR has been kept in check, allowing for a natural look and feel to events.

The disc comes with audio options of German or English, both of which are clean-sounding 2.0 mixes. Obviously the German audio track would be the preferred choice - alas, there are no English subtitles on offer.

So, I went with the English dubbed track. And it's ... well, it's pretty typical of an English dub track from the early 1980s. It's not that the lip-synching is that bad (though it's not always great), but some of the English voice actors used to dub peripheral characters are shockingly inappropriate. This type of dubbing doesn't really harm a trashy slice of fun like ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH. But a film like DER FAN deserves more.

In fairness, the English dub isn't woeful enough to spoil enjoyment of the film. A lot of the film relies on quiet pensive moments, or Simone's narration - and her voiceover isn't bad at all. Nor is the fellow dubbing R. Also, thankfully, the German songs remain sung in their original tongue.

The disc opens to a static main menu. A scene selection menu allows access to the film via 8 chapters, but is only available through the main menu page - there is no pop-up option.

Extras begin with two theatrical trailers - the German and UK ones, which are pretty similar.

There's also what seems to be a mighty fine 19-minute featurette entitled "Eine Kannibalistiche Lovestory". It looks like it proffers a neat interview with Schmidt but is unfortunately in German and without subtitles.

At least there's no such problem with the attractive posters and stills gallery on offer.

DER FAN is also getting a blu-ray release from Mondo Macabro next year, although their initial press release on the matter suggests it will be locked to region A.

In the meantime, it’s served well on CMV’s region B release. It’s just a shame that English subtitles weren’t offered for the German audio track.

Schmidt’s film, much like Gerard Kargl’s aforementioned ANGST, gets overlooked a lot when people speak of great 80s horror films. Hopefully this release and the forthcoming Mondo Macabro one will help give it a fresh lease of life.

Review by Stuart Willis