Everybody's Famous! (Iedereen beroemd!) is a 2000 film from Belgium, in Flemish, directed by Dominique Deruddere.
Jean Vereeken has a poorly-paid, dead-end job at a factory. He has ambitions of being a songwriter despite not being particularly talented. His vehicle to fame and fortune is his unfortunate daughter Marva, whom he is trying to groom as a pop star, despite the fact that she's not talented either. Jean keeps pushing poor reluctant Marva into crappy amateur talent shows, hoping that somehow she'll hit the big time. He urges Marva to imitate "Debbie", the biggest pop star in Belgium.
Jean's depressing life gets more depressing when the factory closes down and he loses his job. He also gets more desperate. So one day, when he just happens to meet Debbie herself as she goes biking down a lonely road, he seizes his chance, and kidnaps her. Jean calls Debbie's manager Michael and demands—a ransom? No. He demands that Michael produce his crappy tune into a pop song and make Marva a star.
Tropes:
- Blackface: Something that people could still get away with in 2000 Belgium, apparently. Marva's abysmal Madonna performance at another talent show is followed by a guy in blackface doing Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness".
- Call-Back: Early in the film Jean asks his daughter for a kiss and hug at bedtime, but Marva refuses, saying she's not 12 anymore. At the climax, as they're talking over a TV feed while she's about to sing and he's about to be arrested, she says she wishes he were there to give her a kiss and hug.
- Casting Couch: Discussed Trope. Marva simply assumes that Debbie had sex with a bunch of guys to become a star. Turns out that's not true, as Debbie tells Jean, but Marva does submit to sex with Michael because she thinks she has to.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Debbie's skills as a mechanic, established in an early scene where she tells Michael that he needs to get his car repaired, wind up getting her kidnapped by Jean when she stops to fix his stranded car.
- Marva's performance at the children's puppet show indicates that she actually has some talent when her Stage Mom father isn't breathing down her neck and forcing her to do celebrity impressions. At the end, she draws on her hidden talent to knock everyone dead with a rendition of her father's song "Lucky Manuelo".
- Coincidental Broadcast: When Jean wants to show Willy that his blunder with going to Debbie's house to get the dog has gotten them in more trouble, he flips on the TV. Naturally, the TV shows a news report about Willy kidnapping the dog, rather than, say, a weather report or a commercial.
- Creator Cameo: Dominique Deruddere is a member of the audience in the scene where Marva mumbles her way through a Madonna song while Jean watches disconsolately.
- The Cynic: Michael, who is perfectly happy to let Debbie remain kidnapped as it is goosing her sales.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: It's degrading Casting Couch sex but Marva seems to be pretty ok with the result. Her mother Chantal picks up on Marva's big smile and confident manner and figures out that something has happened.Chantal: You look so different.
- Establishing Character Moment: The opening scene shows Marva singing extremely unenthusiastically at a two-bit talent show, indicating that she doesn't want to be there. Jean is then introduced fuming at the news that an Andrea Bocelli impersonator won the competition instead of Marva, establishing him as a Stage Mom.
- Facial Composite Failure: Debbie's neighbor provides the police a description of Willy—a "tall thin man of North African descent" who bears no resemblance at all to short, blond Willy. When Debbie sees the police sketch that looks nothing at all like Willy, she says it's because her neighbor is a racist who blames everything bad on Moroccans.
- Happy Ending: Jean beats the rap when Debbie refuses to press charges. Debbie has gone off to live in Australia with Willy. "Lucky Manuelo" is a massive hit and Marva becomes a pop star for real.
- Hostage Situation: Not really! In fact, Debbie and Willy have already left and Jean is in the house alone. But Michael forces Jean to pretend that there's a hostage situation, sending the cops and the media to the safe house, while making Jean threaten Debbie's life if his daughter doesn't go on the air.
- Significant Name: A detail that would probably be missed by foreign viewers. Marva is named after a very popular Flemish singer by that name (true name Marva Mollet) who performed in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Slow Clap: Unbelievably, the cops at the safe house, who at that moment think that Jean has threatened Debbie's life and is still holding her inside, break out into a slow clap when Jean comes out of the safe house, hands raised. Apparently Jean's heartfelt talk with Marva was just that moving.
- Split Screen: Michael actually says "and...split screen!" when directing the TV news coverage of Jean's call to Marva, which is shown live on Belgian TV.
- Stage Mom: Stage Dad in the person of Jean, who is monomaniacally determined to make poor Marva a pop star.
- Stage Name: In-Universe, "Debbie" is really named Els. She tells this to Willy, which signals how they are bonding.
- Stockholm Syndrome: It's certainly set in by the time Debbie and Willy are laying in bed together, and a post-coital Debbie says "You can kidnap me any time you want. I've never been so happy.
- Title Drop: Sort of, as Marva tells her mom, "Doesn't everyone want to be famous?"
- Wrench Wench: While Debbie is a big pop star her natural inclination is to be an auto mechanic. She is able to tell that something is wrong with Michael's car just by listening to the engine. This is how she falls into Jean's clutches; she stops by the side of the road when his car conks out and fixes it.
