Flashdance is a
musical/
romance
film released in April . The film was the first collaboration
of
producer Don
Simpson and
Jerry Bruckheimer
and its presentation of some sequences in the style of
music videos was an influence on other 1980s
films including
Top Gun
(1986), Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production.
Flashdance opened to bad reviews by
professional critics but was a surprise box
office success, becoming the third highest grossing film of 1983 in
the USA
. It
had a worldwide box-office gross of more than $100 million. Its
soundtrack spawned several hit songs, among them "
Maniac" performed by
Michael Sembello and the
Academy Award-winning "
Flashdance... What a Feeling", performed by
Irene Cara, which was written for the
film.
Plot
Blue-collar worker, eighteen year-old
Alexandra (Alex) Owens (played by Jennifer Beals) is a dancer in a Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
, tavern at night and a welder
at a steel mill during the day.She
lives by herself in a converted
warehouse
with her pet dog Grunt. Her aspiration is to become accepted by 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's best friends also work at Mawby's, and they have their own
aspirations 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 wants 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 accompanied invariably by his
strong but unintelligent
bodyguard Cecil
(Malcolm Danare). Johnny C. visits Mawby's to see 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 named 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, but she later learns that he has an
ex-wife called Katie (
Belinda Bauer),
and they have a hostile meeting in a local restaurant. Nick uses
his contacts at the Conservatory to secure an audition for Alex ,
and just before the audition she goes to Hanna's house and learns
that Hanna died the previous night.
At the audition, Alex falls over at the start of her routine, but
starts again and completes the routine successfully. In the final
scene, 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.
The ending of the film does not say directly whether Alex wins a
place at the Conservatory as a result of her audition.
Cast
Music
Cover of the 1983 single
"Flashdance...
"
Flashdance... What a Feeling" was performed
by
Irene Cara, who also sang the title
song for the similar 1980 film
Fame. The music for "Flashdance...
What a Feeling" was composed by
Giorgio
Moroder, and the lyrics were written by Keith Forsey and Irene
Cara. The song won an
Academy Award for Best
Original Song, as well as a
Golden
Globe and numerous other awards. It also reached number one on
the
Billboard Hot 100 in May 1983.
Despite the song's title, the word "Flashdance" is not used in the
lyrics. The song is used in the opening title sequence of the film,
and is the music used by Alex in her dance audition routine at the
end of the film.
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 on
the loose were rewritten so that it could be used in
Flashdance. The song was disqualified from the Academy
Award nomination when it was publicized that it had not been
written specifically for the film. Like the title song, it reached
number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1983.
Other songs in the film include "Lady, Lady, Lady", performed by
Joe Esposito, "Gloria" and
"Imagination" performed by
Laura
Branigan, and "I'll Be Here Where The Heart Is", performed by
Kim Carnes.
The
soundtrack album of
Flashdance sold 700,000 copies during its first two weeks
on sale and has gone on to sell over 6,000,000 copies in the US
alone. In 1984 the album won the
Grammy
Award for
Best Album of Original Score Written for A Motion Picture or a
Television Special.
History
Adrian Lyne, whose background was
primarily in directing
TV
commercials, was not the first choice as
director of
Flashdance.
David Cronenberg turned down an offer to
direct the film, as did
Brian de
Palma, who instead chose to direct
Scarface (1983). Executives at
Paramount were unsure about the
film's potential and sold 25% of the rights prior to its release.
The role of Alex Owens was originally offered to
Melanie Griffith, who turned it down.
Producers wanted an unknown for the part. 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 before Beals won the
part.
Flashdance is often remembered for the
sweatshirt with a large neck hole that Jennifer
Beals wore on the
poster advertising the
film. Beals said that the look of the sweatshirt 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 role of Nick Hurley
was originally offered to
KISS lead man
Gene Simmons, who turned it down
because it would conflict to his "demon" image.
Pierce Brosnan,
Robert De Niro,
Richard Gere,
Mel
Gibson,
Tom Hanks and
John Travolta were also considered for the
part.
Kevin Costner, a struggling
actor at the time came very close for the role of Nick Hurley, that
went to
Michael
Nouri.
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
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
and
Top Gun (1986).
Joe Eszterhas, the screenwriter of
Basic Instinct (1992),
received his second screen credit for
Flashdance, while
Adrian Lyne went on to direct
9½ Weeks (1986),
Fatal Attraction (1987),
Indecent Proposal (1993) and
Lolita (1997).
Lynda Obst, who developed the original story
outline, went on to produce
Adventures in Babysitting
(1987),
The Fisher
King (1991) and
Sleepless in Seattle (1993). She
is currently producing and writing
Interstellar, the next
Steven Spielberg project, tentatively
scheduled for release in 2011.
Flashdance was executive producers
Jon Peters and
Peter
Gruber's follow-up to
Endless Love (1981), another
PolyGram Pictures
release.
There were discussions about a sequel to
Flashdance, but
plans were abandoned.
In March 2001, a Broadway
musical
version was proposed with new songs by Giorgio Moroder, but this also failed to
materialize. In July 2008, a stage musical adaptation
Flashdance The
Musical premiered at the Theatre
Royal
in Plymouth
, England
. The
book is co-written by
Tom Hedley, who
created the story outline for the original film, and the
choreography is by
Arlene Phillips.
Locations
Most of
the movie was filmed on locations around Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
Critical response
Flashdance has seldom received favorable reviews from
professional critics.
Roger Ebert placed
it on his list of
Most Hated films, stating: "Jennifer
Beals shouldn't feel bad. She is a natural talent, she is fresh and
engaging here, and only needs to find an agent with a natural
talent for turning down scripts".
Halliwell's Film Guide gave it one
star out of four while
The New
Yorker described the film as "Basically, a series of rock
videos."
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. A common criticism is that
Michael Nouri, who was thirty-six at the time
of filming, seems too old to be the love interest of eighteen
year-old
Jennifer Beals. Critics have
also questioned whether an eighteen 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. 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.
Although
Flashdance has been compared to
Saturday Night Fever (1977) with a
female lead, 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
Post-disco/
New Wave
era retelling of the
Cinderella story
with all the implausibilities that this brings. Like the original
theatrical release of
Saturday Night Fever (also from
Paramount Pictures),
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.
Flashdance and the MTV connection
Flashdance is not a
musical in
the traditional sense as the characters do not sing, but rather,
the songs are presented in the style of self-contained
music videos. The phenomenal success of this
film is attributed in part to the 1981 launch of the
cable channel
Music Television , as it was the first to
exploit the new medium effectively. By excerpting segments of the
film and running them as music videos on MTV, the studio benefited
from extensive free promotion, and thus established the new medium
as an important marketing tool for movies. In the mid 1980s, it
became almost obligatory to release a music video to promote a
major motion picture — even if the film was not especially suited
for one. An example from the era is the song and music video
Take My Breath Away
from
Top Gun (1986), also
from
Flashdance producers
Don
Simpson and
Jerry Bruckheimer.
Giorgio Moroder composed
Take My
Breath Away and several of the songs for
Flashdance.
Legal action by Maureen Marder
- Suit against filmmakers
Flashdance was inspired by the real
life story of Maureen Marder, a construction worker/welder by day
and dancer by night in a Toronto
strip
club. Like the character of Alex Owens in the film, she
aspired to enroll in 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 $2,300.
Flashdance is estimated to have grossed
$150 million worldwide. In June 2006, the
U.S.
Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 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.
- Suit against Jennifer Lopez and filmmakers over music
video
In 2003, following the use of dance routines from the film by
Jennifer Lopez in her music video
I'm Glad (directed by
David LaChapelle), Marder sued Lopez,
Sony Corporation (the makers of the music
video) and Paramount in an attempt to gain a
copyright interest in the film. Although 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.
See also
- Films of a similar genre in 1980s
References
- Roger Ebert's Most Hated list
- 1983 Yearly Box Office Results
- Maniac by Michael Sembello Songfacts
- Flashdance (1983) - Trivia
- Leslie Wing
- Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 12 April
2004
- What a feeling: 'Flashdance' fever - Entertainment
News, Legit News, Media - Variety
- "Flashdance" by Kathryn Kalinak
- Litwak, p. 245
- SAN FRANCISCO / Inspiration for 'Flashdance' loses
appeal for more money
- Flashdance (1983) - News
- D A V I D * L A C H A P E L L E
External links
. This was the same ice skating rink used in
the George A. Romero horror film Dawn of the Dead (1978).
, located near the University of
Pittsburgh
campus in Oakland.
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