OVID.tv Presents NUMBER ONE FAN (ELLE L’ADORE) Review – An Unlikely Thrill

Read more recent OVID.tv reviews here.

Read More OVID.tv Roundup — 2021 and 2022 here.

Read prior years’ reviews as well—all films still available on OVID.tv— along with an interview with OVID.tv Director Jonathan Miller here.

What happens when a superstar’s fate becomes inextricably intertwined with that of his most ardent fan?

We meet a superstar, Vincent, when he is with a group of friends playing poker at the dining room table. The room is filled with laughter and joyful banter. Vincent leads the giddy bunch, keeping the conversation flowing and the giddiness high. Behind the poker table Vincent’s girlfriend, Julie, watches the television while muttering groans of discontent.   Her displeasure goes unheard.  She sits, left out of the merriment and then storms past them, marching up the stairs with loud and heavy steps. Suddenly, the laughter stops when Vincent and friends hear the breaking of glass, stomping, and screaming. Julie is demanding that she be heard. Vincent shows his annoyance, and then sends his friends home to deal with his unhappy partner who awaits him upstairs.

Julie sits on the couch but there is an accident.   She now lays lifeless, her body rolled in a rainbow woven blanket. The camera zooms in on Vincent’s expression --blank and numb seeming.  Soon, he rummages through a drawer, pulling out a single letter. By the next scene he’s at her door.  She is Muriel, who is stunned and can’t believe whose face she views through the peephole.  It’s Vincent LaCroix-- her idol!

We had actually already met Muriel in the very first scene of the movie.  She sits in a brightly lit cafe across from her children.  She is regaling them with her tale of how a man came up to her, positive that she’s a woman named Rose. Instead of correcting him she goes along with his assumption.  When he mentions a man she presumes to be a mutual friend, she claims he’s died. Even when the man expresses profound shock and sadness, she lets the lie continue.  As she tells this her childrens’ faces are shrouded in confusion and disbelief. “Why would you say that? they ask, and ask.  Muriel doesn’t answer.