Although she aspires to become a professional dancer, she has no formal dance training and works as a nightly cabaret performer by night at Mawby's, a neighborhood bar and grill. Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri star in FlashdanceĪlexandra "Alex" Owens ( Jennifer Beals) is an eighteen-year-old welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who lives with her dog, Grunt, in a converted warehouse. Flashdance is also often remembered for its film poster featuring Beals sporting a sweatshirt with a large neck hole (according to the actress, her look in the scene came about by accident after she simply cut a large hole at the top of one that had shrunk in the wash). What a Feeling", which was written for the film by Moroder, with lyrics by Keith Forsey and the singer Irene Cara. The soundtrack, compiled by Giorgio Moroder, spawned several hit songs, including " Maniac" (performed by Michael Sembello), and the Academy Award–winning " Flashdance.
Its worldwide box-office gross exceeded $200 million. It was a surprise box-office success, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States. The film opened to negative reviews by professional critics, including Roger Ebert, who panned it as "great sound and flashdance, signifying nothing" (and eventually placed it on his "most hated" list). Alex's elaborate dance sequences were shot using body doubles (Beals' main double was the uncredited French actress Marine Jahan, while a breakdance move was doubled by the male dancer Crazy Legs). It was also one of Lyne's first major film releases, building on television commercials. It was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Footloose, Purple Rain, and Top Gun, Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production. Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer who aspires to become a professional ballerina (Alex), alongside Michael Nouri playing her boyfriend and the owner of the steel mill where she works by day in Pittsburgh.