Simone (Désirée Nosbusch) is a sullen teenager who is obsessed with R (Bodo Staiger, the lead singer of Rheingold), a Ian Curtis-like synth pop singer whose moody lyrics she thinks are written just for her. Soon, she is skipping all the classes, acts out at home, and waits outside the post-office for R's responses to her countless fan mails, I mean, love letters, that would never come. If she doesn't get a response in 7 days, she decides, she will track him down. He is making an appearance on a TV show called Top Pop in Munich, so she hitchhikes, risking unwanted sexual advances from older men. But she is determined.
Once she gets to Munich and settles outside the TV studio, she finally sees R. And to her surprise, he notices her from across the street, while surrounded by gaggle of other adoring teen girls, and calls her over, to attend his rehearsals. What's more, he wants to get away on vacation with her to his friend's mansion. It's a dream come true for Simone. They have sex. But it's just a one night stand for him. Once she realizes that, she won't let him go.
What starts out as a teenage fantasy film devolves into a dark and violent obsession, Eckhart Schmidt's lurid crime drama is soley relying on the presence of its young star Nosbusch and her new wave stylings- the walkmen, the hair, the clothing - including the see through backpacks complete with the fascist logos, leather pants, double breasted tops, Der Fan screams out the 80s. The Fan is obviously targeted for the young audience in its day, offering sex, edgy aesthetics, and cool music, then falling into that weirdness you'd expect in German underground cinema of Jörg Buttgereit- but more polished.
