Flashdance
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| Flashdance | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover for Flashdance |
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| Directed by | Adrian Lyne |
| Produced by | Don Simpson Jerry Bruckheimer |
| Written by | Tom Hedley Joe Eszterhas |
| Starring | Jennifer Beals Michael Nouri |
| Music by | Giorgio Moroder |
| Cinematography | Donald Peterman |
| Editing by | Walt Mulconery Bud S. Smith |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 15, 1983 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Flashdance is a musical and romance film released in April 1983. Despite negative reviews from professional critics, it was one of the most successful films of the early 1980s. It is best known for the Academy Award winning song Flashdance... What a Feeling performed by Irene Cara which was written for the film.
Click here to listen to an audio clip from the song.
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[edit] Plot summary
The film tells the story of blue-collar worker Alexandra Owens (Jennifer Beals). Alex works as an exotic dancer in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania bar at night and at a steel mill as a welder during the day. Her dream is to obtain a place at a prestigious dance school, the (fictional) Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory. During one of her performances at Mawby's, the bar where she works, she attracts the attention of Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri) who is the boss of the steel mill, and he learns that Alex is one of his employees. Alex is 18 years old and she lives on her own in a converted warehouse with her ugly but cute dog Grunt.
Alex's best friends also work at Mawby's and they have their own dreams of fame. Jeanie Szabo (Sunny Johnson) is a waitress who aspires to be a professional ice skater and Jeanie's boyfriend Richie Blazik (Kyle T. Heffner) is a cook who aspires to be a professional stand-up comedian. Also prominent in the film is Johnny C. (Lee Ving) who runs the local strip club, the Zanzibar, and is invariably accompanied by his strong but dense bodyguard Cecil (Malcolm Danare). Johnny C. visits Mawby's to check out the dancers and tries to recruit both Alex and Jeanie to work at the Zanzibar.
Alex goes to the Conservatory to ask for an application form for an audition, but walks out when she realizes that she lacks any formal dance training and will have to leave that section of the form blank. Alex's dance teacher and mentor is a retired ballet dancer called Hanna Long (Lilia Skala) who encourages Alex to pursue her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. After Jeanie falls over twice at an audition for an ice show, she loses confidence in herself and becomes a dancer at the Zanzibar, where she performs in the nude, and Alex goes to the strip club to rescue Jeanie.
Alex and Nick become lovers and she learns that he has an ex-wife called Katie (Belinda Bauer), and they have a frosty meeting in a local restaurant. Nick uses his contacts to secure an audition for Alex at the Conservatory, and just before the audition she goes to Hanna's house and learns that she has died.
At the audition Alex falls over at the start of her routine, but starts again and completes the routine successfully. In the final scene of the film, Alex runs out of the Conservatory building with a smile on her face and is hugged by Nick, who gives her a bunch of red roses. Contrary to popular belief, the ending of the film does not say directly whether Alex wins a place at the Conservatory as a result of her audition.
[edit] Critical responses
Flashdance has seldom received favorable reviews from professional critics. Roger Ebert placed it on his list of worst films, while Halliwell's Film Guide gives it one star out of four. The New Yorker described the film as "Basically, a series of rock videos", while The Guardian described it as "A preposterous success." Detractors of the film argue that in addition to the shallow plot, the film represents the worst excesses of 1980s film making with its emphasis on short sequences and rapid editing between shots. The screenplay of the film was nominated for a Razzie (Golden Raspberry) award. More favorable reviews of the film can be found online at IMDB, where ordinary members of the public give their opinions about the film.[1] A common criticism is that Michael Nouri seems too old to be the love interest of Jennifer Beals (Nouri was 36 and Beals was 18 at the time that the film was in production). Critics have also questioned whether an 18-year-old woman would have been given a job as a welder in an old-fashioned steel mill.
The dimly-lit cinematography and montage-style editing are due in part to the fact that Jennifer Beals does virtually none of the dancing in the film. Her main dance double is the French actress Marine Jahan, while the breakdancing that Alex performs in the audition sequence at the end of the film was doubled by the male dancer Crazy Legs (Richard Colón). The shot of Alex diving through the air in slow motion during the audition sequence was performed by Sharon Shapiro, who was a professional gymnast. The film is not a musical in the traditional sense as the characters do not sing and the songs are presented in the style of self-contained music videos. This was unusual at the time of the film's release but has been much copied since.
Although Flashdance has been described as a female version of Saturday Night Fever the tone of the two films is very different. Saturday Night Fever takes a much more downbeat look at the world of people trapped in low paid jobs, while Flashdance works best as a disco era retelling of the Cinderella story with all the implausibilities that this brings. Like the original theatrical release of Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance was rated R by the MPAA, which meant that audience members under seventeen years old required an accompanying parent or guardian to watch the film. This was due to some strong language, nudity and sexual content which were removed for the television version of the film.
[edit] Copyright issues
Flashdance was inspired by the real life story of Maureen Marder, who was a construction worker/welder by day and worked by night in a Toronto strip club. Like the character of Alex Owens in the film, she aspired to enter a prestigious dance school. Tom Hedley wrote the original story outline for Flashdance, and on December 6, 1982 Marder signed a release document giving Paramount Pictures the right to portray her life story on screen, for which she was given a one-off payment of $2300. Flashdance is estimated to have grossed $150 million worldwide, and following the use of dance routines from the film by Jennifer Lopez in her 2003 video I'm Glad, Marder sued Paramount and Sony Corporation (the makers of the I'm Glad video) in an attempt to gain a copyright interest in the film. In June 2006, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirmed a lower court's ruling that Marder gave up her rights to the film when she signed the release document in 1982. The panel of three judges stated in its ruling: "Though in hindsight the agreement appears to be unfair to Marder - she only received $2,300 in exchange for a release of all claims relating to a movie that grossed over $150 million - there is simply no evidence that her consent was obtained by fraud, deception, misrepresentation, duress or undue influence." The court also noted that Marder's attorney had been present when she signed the document. [2]
Although Jennifer Lopez argued that her video for I'm Glad was intended as a tribute to Flashdance, in May 2003 Sony agreed to pay a licensing fee to Paramount for the use of dance routines and other story material from the film in the video. [3][4]
[edit] Additional information
- Sunny Johnson, who played the ice skater Jeanie Szabo in the film, died of a ruptured aneurysm on June 19, 1984. [5]
- David Cronenberg turned down an offer to direct the film.
- The sweater with the off-the-shoulder collar that Jennifer Beals wore on the poster advertising the film became a popular fashion item in the 1980s. Beals said that the look of the sweater came about by accident when it shrank in the wash and she cut out a large hole at the top so that she could wear it again.
- The audition for the part of Alex Owens was narrowed down to a final shortlist of three candidates, Jennifer Beals, Demi Moore and Leslie Wing [6] before the part was awarded to Beals.
- The audition sequence at the end of the film was shot at the Carnegie Institute at 4615 Forbes Avenue in Oakland, Pittsburgh. [7]
- There were proposals for a sequel to Flashdance but the film was never made. In March 2001, plans were announced for a Broadway musical version with new songs by Giorgio Moroder, but this has also failed to materialize. [8]
- The dance routine set to Imagination by Laura Branigan midway through the film contains strong use of stroboscopic lighting, and should be avoided by people with photosensitive epilepsy.
[edit] Influence on the film industry
Flashdance was the first success of a number of filmmakers who became top industry figures in the 1980s and beyond. The film was the first collaboration between Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who went on to produce Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop. Joe Eszterhas, the screenwriter of Basic Instinct, received his first screen credit for Flashdance, while Adrian Lyne went on to direct Fatal Attraction, 9½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal and Lolita. Lynda Obst, who developed the original story outline, went on to produce Adventures in Babysitting, The Fisher King and Sleepless in Seattle. She is currently producing and writing Interstellar, the next Steven Spielberg project.
[edit] References in popular culture
Flashdance has been referenced in popular culture on a number of occasions. These include:
- Geri Halliwell recorded a version of the song It's Raining Men for the 2001 film Bridget Jones's Diary. In the video of the song, Geri Halliwell recreates the audition sequence from Flashdance and also references the 1980s film and television series Fame.
- In 2003, the video for the Jennifer Lopez song I'm Glad used dance routines and story material from the film. This led to legal battles, see the paragraph Copyright issues above.
- In 2006, Hughes Corporation (Andy Hughes and Simon Russell) released a remixed version of the Irene Cara single Flashdance... What a Feeling. The video of the song contains a loose parody of the dance sequences from Flashdance performed by Deanne Berry and Juan Pablo di Pace, who also starred in the video for the Eric Prydz remix of Call On Me.
- In September 2006, an Australian television commercial for Carlton Draught beer parodied the audition sequence from Flashdance almost shot for shot. [10]
- One of the most famous shots in the film occurs in the opening "Chair Dance" sequence at Mawby's bar when Alex tips a bucket of water on to her chest. This shot has been widely copied and parodied.
[edit] Music used in the film
Flashdance is best remembered as the film that contains the song Flashdance... What a Feeling performed by Irene Cara. The music for the song was composed by Giorgio Moroder, and the lyrics were written by Keith Forsey and Irene Cara. The song won an Academy Award for Best Song, as well as a Golden Globe and numerous other awards. It also reached number one in the Billboard charts in May 1983.
Another song used in the film, Maniac, was also nominated for an Academy Award. It was written by Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky, and was inspired by the 1980 horror film Maniac. The lyrics about a killer were rewritten so that it could be used in Flashdance. The song was disqualified from the Academy Award nomination on a technicality when it emerged that it had not been written specifically for the film. [11]
Other songs used in the film include Lady, Lady, Lady performed by Joe Esposito, Gloria performed by Laura Branigan and I Love Rock 'N' Roll performed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
The soundtrack album of the film sold 700,000 copies during its first two weeks on sale.
