SHOCK reviews the masterful 1982 German drama THE FAN.
There have been a wealth of movies that exploit starry-eyed teenage girls and their sometimes obsessive, often manipulative, romantic crushes. Everything from Stanley Kubrick’s lurid adaptation of LOLITA to wistful John Hughes confections like PRETTY IN PINK to cartoonishly malevolent fare like THE CRUSH and THE LOVED ONES.
You’ve seen plenty of them. I’ve seen plenty of them.
Neither of us as seen one as affectingly perverse as Eckhart Schmidt’s THE FAN (aka DER FAN), a slow-burning peek into the increasingly fevered mind of a girl left unguided, who follows her hormones to hell.
Thing is, I should feel somewhat silly raving belatedly about THE FAN, as it was released in 1982 in its native Germany and elsewhere and has a healthy stable of admirers. But, until Mondo Macabro‘s new Blu-ray release arrived in my mail box, I’d never even heard of it.
Better late than never.
THE FAN stars former German TV star Desiree Nosbusch as Simone, a teen who is infatuated by a chiseled young singer named ‘R’, the front man of a hot pop band. Infatuated becomes too mild a label for her admiring state, however. Simone is obsessed, fixated. The sun rises and sets on her swelling romantic fantasies. Her room is plastered with pictures. She spins ‘R”s records endlessly. She scribbles love letters to her idol and waits patiently for some sort of sign that he’s receiving them. She’s adamant that they will be together. Eventually. Always. Forever.
As Simone drifts deeper into her psychosis, her parents are seemingly lost in their own spaces, ignorant to the molasses-paced meltdown that is happening before their eyes. Their apathy is what gives THE FAN its tragic core. And make no mistake, the film is most certainly a tragedy.
Withdrawing completely from her parents and friends, Simone stalks her imaginary boyfriend, tracking him to an appearance on a national TV show. There, she weaves around the horde of groupies and makes contact with ‘R’, who not only claims to have read all of Simone’s letters, but appears to be a sensitive, gentle young man.
Of course, he’s not. And after being lured to one of ‘R”s “flats”, she learns just how insensitive he actually is. Her heart smashed, her dignity crushed, Simone finally snaps and coasts into what she believes is the “final solution” for consummating their love. “Consume” being the key.
Indeed, THE FAN dissolves into cannibalism and while that is a mild spoiler, it’s not the act itself that affects, rather it’s the way in which that final reel illustrates the act. Schmidt navigates the gore and shock, not by being transgressive like his fellow countryman and NEKROMANTIK legend Jörg Buttgereit does in his films, but by keeping the focus always on Simone and keeping the audience locked on the sadness of her decline.
The real twist in THE FAN comes after the cannibalism, in the film’s final moments and while we won’t reveal that, suffice to say it’s a deliciously deranged denouement that secures chills long after the credits roll.
THE FAN is a masterpiece of New Wave cinema, stylish and moody and driven by an apparently legendary electronic score by the synth band RHEINGOLD (‘R’ is in fact played by RHEINGOLD vocalist Bodo Staiger). But its ample style never trumps its substance. This is a positively wrenching portrait of mental illness goosed with familiar horror tropes, some might say completely unbelievable horror tropes, but I disagree. Extreme love, sexuality and cannibalism are inexorably linked to real life crimes, from the recent case of the German cannibal who found willing victims to be eaten via a dating site, to Jeffrey Dahmer to to the sociopathic Canadian hustler/murderer/cannibal Luka Magnotta
It happens. And linking what is prominently a male crime to that of an innocent young girl adds dramatic gravitas to an already mesmerizing tale. Perhaps this, rather than the nature of the crime itself, is what caused the picture some controversy upon release. To the general public, it might have seemed vulgar to have painted such a portrait.
Mondo Macabro loads this release with features, including an edifying and lengthy interview with the director, production notes and trailers. The film looks magnificent (and sounds just as good) and you have the option in watching the film in either its native German or English dub. Oddly, I preferred the dubbed version, with Simone’s endless voice-over narration seeming that much more chilling and alien.
It’s 2016, true, but THE FAN is one of the must see movies of the year, despite it being almost 24 years old.
Please listen to me. Please find it. And let us know your thoughts.
Visit Mondo Macabro. to get yours…
