She said the programme "relishes the unusual comedy in the story, celebrating its silliness".. "What really matters is what you like, not what you're like," says Rob Gordon (John Cusack) in the American film version of High Fidelity. Fans of the novel High Fidelity, Nick Hornby's homage to Holloway, can rest assured that even though the new version has been transplanted to Chicago, it is still very much a collectible. The big surprise is that the American version is even better than the novel. "What really matters is what you like, not what you're like," says Rob Gordon (John Cusack) in the American film version of High Fidelity.

Fans of the novel High Fidelity, Nick Hornby's homage to Holloway, can rest assured that even though the new version has been transplanted to Chicago, it is still very much a collectible. The big surprise is that the American version is even better than the novel. High Fidelity gives a lot of room to the novel's two fan boy bookends - one shy flower, one wise-ass - who work in Rob Gordon's record store, Championship Vinyl. There are still the novel's girlfriends past, itinerised like bottles of fancy beer in a refrigerator. There's still the power struggle between Rob and his long-suffering, strong-willed girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle).New, spot-on Hornby-isms abound (Rob exalts one of his girlfriends for rubbing her feet together in bed) but it's often by the book. The description of Rob's one-night stand, singer Marie LaSalle, is the same in the novel and the film. Hornby dubbed her "post-Partridge Family, pre-LA Law Susan Dey". Here, played by Lisa Bonet, she's said to resemble Susan Dey post-Partridge, "but black".

In its rush to stay faithful to the novel, the film even makes a minor mistake - it's far less likely that an American indie rock record store owner would also be a club DJ But then again, this is Chicago.Now for the differences. In High Fidelity, the novel, our narrator presented himself in simple-minded fashion. And with this simplicity he wormed his way into the reader's consciousness. High Fidelity the film, on the other hand, is a much more complicated affair It's got the novel's boppy, post-feminist masculinity. But it's mostly about American fandom.Like Being John Malkovich and King of Comedy, High Fidelity is about little men-boys with big-taste worlds. Groovy academic Slavoj Zizek has already singled out Being John Malkovich as an illustration of individual consciousness. All three films are mildly eccentric comedies capable of exploring celebrity mania, while reproducing it in a minor key.Fandom is stardom's shadow, of course, but surprisingly few films have explored the relationship between them (All About Eve being a notable exception) Twenty-five years ago, they didn't need to.