Flashdance

Three candidates, Jennifer Beals, Demi Moore, and Leslie Wing, were the finalists for the role of Alex Owens. Two different stories exist regarding how Beals was chosen. One states that then-Paramount president Michael Eisner asked women secretaries at the studio to select their favorite after viewing screen tests. The other: the film's scriptwriter Joe Eszterhas claims that Eisner asked "two hundred of the most macho men on the [Paramount] lot, Teamsters and gaffers and grips ... 'I want to know which of these three young women you'd most want to fuck'".[14][15][16]

The role of Nick Hurley was originally offered to Kiss lead man Gene Simmons, who turned it down because it would conflict with 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, which 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). Eszterhas received his second screen credit for Flashdance, while 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).

The dimly lit cinematography and montage-style editing are due in part to the fact that most of Jennifer Beals' dancing in the film was performed by a body double.[17] Her main dance double is the French actress Marine Jahan,[18][19] while the breakdancing that Alex performs in the audition sequence at the end of the film was doubled by the male dancer Crazy Legs.[20] 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.[21] The producers of the film stated they had made no secret of having used a double for Beals, and that Jahan's name did not appear because Paramount Pictures shortened the closing credits.[17]

Much of the film was shot in locations around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

• The ice skating rink on which Jeanie falls was filmed at Culver Ice Rink in Culver City, California.
• The fictional Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory was filmed inside the lobby and in front of Carnegie Music Hall, a part of the Carnegie Museum of Art, located near the campuses of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
• Alex's apartment was located in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The interior of the apartment was filmed in Los Angeles at what was the Feit Electric Building on Los Angeles Street in downtown LA.
• Alex is seen riding one of the Duquesne Incline cable cars when she goes to visit Hannah.
• Hannah's apartment is located at 2100 Sidney Street at the southeast corner of South 21st Street. The entrance to the apartment is from South 21st Street.
• The opening sequence of scenes with Alex riding her bicycle starts on Warren Street at its intersection with Catoma Street. She rides south on Warren Street to Henderson Street, makes a hairpin turn from Henderson Street onto Fountain Street, and is next shown riding south on Middle Street. The last scene of the sequence shows Alex riding east over the Smithfield Street Bridge, which is a continuity error.

Flashdance has been issued originally on VHS and Laserdisc with a Paramount Pictures DVD release on October 8, 2002 and a Special Collector’s Edition DVD in 2010.[23][24] It was first released on Blu-ray Disc on August 13, 2013 by Warner Bros. with seven special features including a 15-minute featurette The History of Flashdance, a 9-minute featurette The Look of Flashdance, Flashdance The Choreography and teaser and theatrical trailers.[25] The film was re-released on Blu-ray in the U.S. on May 19, 2020 by Paramount Presents with a new 4K remaster and packaging. It includes a new Filmmakers Focus interview with the director but excludes a few special features from the previous Blu-ray release.[26]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 36% based on 44 reviews. The site's consensus is: "All style and very little substance, Flashdance boasts eye-catching dance sequences—and benefits from an appealing performance from Jennifer Beals—but its narrative is flat-footed".[27] On Metacritic the film has a score of 39% based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[28]

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".[29] In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times Ebert said "If Flashdance had spent just a little more effort getting to know the heroine of its story, and a little less time trying to rip off "Saturday Night Fever," it might have been a much better film."[30] Variety compared the film to a series of music videos, "Watching Flashdance is pretty much like looking at MTV for 96 minutes. Virtually plotless, exceedingly thin on characterization and sociologically laughable, pic at least lives up to its title by offering an anthology of extraordinarily flashy dance numbers."[31] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "With a score by Giorgio Moroder, and with ingenious costumes that are utterly au courant, Flashdance contains such dynamic dance scenes that it's a pity there's a story here to bog them down."[32]

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. A common criticism was directed toward the on-screen partnership between Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri, largely due to the significant age difference between the two (at the time of filming, Beals was 18 while Nouri was 36). 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 film was nominated for three Academy Awards, in the categories Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Song. In the latter category it won for the song "Flashdance... What a Feeling". The screenplay was nominated for a Razzie Award, where it lost to The Lonely Lady.[33]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "Flashdance... What a Feeling" – #55[34]
• 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated[35]

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. Its success has been attributed in part to the 1981 launch of the cable channel MTV (Music Television) since it was the first feature film to exploit the new popularity of music videos effectively.[40] By excerpting segments of the film and running them as music videos on MTV, the studio benefited from extensive free promotion, establishing the new medium as an important marketing tool for films.[41] 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.[42]

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 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 more than $200 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.[43]

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.[44][45]