Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Leofwine_draca For the first hour this is a slow, even stately paced movie, utterly mundane and pretty boring for those who expect action scenes every ten minutes and a twist-a-minute plot. It's a West German production that feels very much like other product from that country (I'm thinking in particular of MOSQUITO THE RAPIST here) in that the characters are cold and the film has a clinically detached feel to it, as if we're scientists watching events play out in a laboratory. There's not a great deal of room for emotion here, but there is a high degree of realism – everything we see is matter-of-fact and everyday stuff, from a teenage girl's pop star obsession to the daily life that goes on around her.Then, at around the hour mark, there is an absolutely massive plot twist and the film suddenly turns into this dark psychological horror yarn that isn't for the squeamish. It's never gory, but the subtle events that play out involving dismemberment and cannibalism are extremely disturbing precisely because they're presented in a mundane, normal way; as if this stuff was expected to happen, and is nothing out of the ordinary. This makes things all the more disturbing. As the young protagonist, Desiree Nosbusch gives an understated performance that works precisely because she hides most of her character's feelings, especially towards the climax of the movie. She's also far from shy, and spends most of the latter half of the film walking around completely naked, which is a little distracting for the viewer.The supporting cast members vary in quality, but I did like Bodo Steiger as the odd, pale pop performer and it's one annoyingly catchy tune he sings. So, in essence, this is a film where exploitation meets subtlety, where depraved horrors are the stuff of normal existence, and it works precisely because of that reason for viewers who are patient enough to sit it out to the end. As such it's a neat precursor to the kind of modern Japanese shockers like AUDITION, where the surprises are saved for the final reel to blow the reader out of their seat at the film's climax. Just remember that TRANCE got there first.

Michael_Elliott 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.

HumanoidOfFlesh Apparently the favourite film of Japanese cannibal killer Issei Sagawa this unusual German horror drama left me a little bit disturbed.Cute 17-year-old teenager Simone has an intense crush on a dark-haired pop singer "R".The girl believes they are meant to be together,but he doesn't reply on her love letters.As she sees him for the first time she is speechless,unable even to ask for his autograph.He notices her and reaches out to touch her.Overcome with emotion Simone faints;with that first touch R's fate is sealed.When they later make love he is cold and detached.She plans the revenge which erupts into bloody murder and cannibalism..."Trance" is a remarkable horror drama about idol obsession and dysfunctional family living in their own private hell.The climax is gruesome and haunting as Simone kills and dismembers the object of her affection in a fetishistic sequence.The climatic gory mayhem is truly unforgettable.

lazarillo A deranged teenage girl played by Desiree Nosbusch (who like many deranged females in movies is improbably hot) is obsessed with a bad German rock star named "R". She is alienated from her parents and seemingly has no friends, so she spends all her free time listening to "R"'s music and following his career. She attends a TV show he is taping at a nearby town. They meet and he decides that she is good for a quick shag. Unfortunately, she wants more from him--MUCH more--and she ends up doing something truly shocking.This is a downbeat and pretty disturbing movie--it's not, however, especially believable. An incident kind of like this did actually happen in Germany recently (which was made all the more disturbing by the fact that the victim was apparently completely willing). But that bizarre case involved a middle-aged man--it's a little harder to believe a pretty teenage girl could be this warped (It's also kind of an ironic conceit that the stalkers in movies are often the kind of people--i.e. young, attractive, female--that in real life are far more like to be the stalk-ees). Nosbusch does give a pretty convincing performance, and this helps greatly. This first-time German actress would go on to a short career in cinema, including English-language films like "Good Morning, Babylon" (under the name Desiree Becker). She became more famous perhaps though as a singer and a presenter of the Eurovision contest (where she no doubt introduced musical acts even worse than that of the fictional "R").This was a good movie, but unfortunately I got my copy via Britain where it was subject to some idiotic (even by their standards) censorship. To wit, Nosbusch's impressive butt and boobs are literally on display for about ten minutes here, but the Brit censors decided a brief full-frontal scene was apparently just too harmful to society. This cut reputedly doesn't make that much of a difference though (which is exactly why it is so STUPID). Anyway, I would recommend this, but if you have a choice try to get a version WITHOUT the checkered triangle with an 18 on it (the international symbol of the idiocy of the BBFC). In any case, much like "R" does with his obsessive young fan, this one will definitely stay with you.