Movies | Olivia Newton-John, who died on Monday, made such a strange film that it is worth watching even in parts

Australian actor-singer Olivia Newton-John died Monday morning. Newton-John was 73 years old when he died. She is best remembered for the female lead Grease-musical film, opposite the superstar of his time John Travoltaas well as pophites.

In his career, Newton-John was also involved in one of Hollywood’s most unusual productions. Xanadu (1980) garnered a small fan following immediately after its release, but flopped overall.

Xanadu is a movie where no part of it really works together. The music is wonderful at its best, but the whole remains largely incomprehensible.

Xanadu was considered such a failure at the time that it inspired the creation of The Golden Raspberry Award. The “Razzie” gala, which parodies the Oscars, annually awards the worst films of the year.

The musical genre, which was already in bad shape, was practically abandoned in Hollywood for decades.

The movie the story seems to come together in an instant: the suffering young artist Sonny (Michael Beck) runs into a lovely young woman named Kira (Newton-John) on the streets of Los Angeles. Kira is actually one of the muses of ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of the arts. Kira has also inspired the jazz musician Danny (musical star Gene Kelly in his last film role). Influenced by Kira, Sonny and Danny end up founding a roller skating disco together.

Xanadu clear inspirations were the hit musicals of the late 1970s Saturday Night Fever – Saturday night drug (1977) as well as Grease (1978), from which Newton-John emerged as an idol. Perhaps the creators thought that the combination of 1940s step music and barracks electric guitars would be able to create similar enthusiasm.

It happened otherwise. Contemporary critics criticized the film as confusing and dark. Most of the scenes take place in a huge dark hall. Sometimes it’s hard to see the faces of the actors, even in close-ups. The main actors Newton-John and Beck are at worst snobbish, only Kelly is relaxed.

The dance choreographies are boring because the images are so tightly cropped and cut as much as possible.

Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly dance together in a scene set in the 1940s. Picture: Globe Photos

Although rejected by critics and the general public, the film quickly gained traction cult audience.

Xanadu it’s worth experiencing, even in short bursts, because it’s so strange. At the beginning of the film, Sonny tears up his drawing and throws it into the wind. Pieces fly past a mural depicting a muse, whose characters come alive and dance one by one. The outlines of the characters are electric pink.

It reminds me of a ticklingly strange effect The throne (1982) computer effects. The classic film is often remembered as the first film to make proper use of computer animation, but the wild-looking Xanadu was already published two years earlier.

At the end of the film, Sonny gets through the same mural to a kind of heaven, which resembles a deserted psychedelic disco.

Musically Xanadu succeeds: Olivia Newton-John’s heady title song sounds like Abba in her prime, and the Electric Light Orchestra soundtrack works.

The animated part also deserves a special mention, where the main characters kiss, turn into thumbs and finally into goldfish. He is legendary as an animator Don Blutha Disney animator who was involved in making, among other things Robin Hood (1973), quit his job and founded his own animation studio. Children’s films that have also been seen in Finland are directed by Bluth NIMH – Mrs. Brisby and her secret world (1982), Fievel on his way to America (1986) as well as Earth at the beginning of time (1988).

Xanadu resembles a lot The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), whose screenings are a beloved community event with rice-throwing and chanting. Perhaps, however, the lesser-known “sequel” of the film comes to mind the most Shock Treatment (1981) with catchy songs and messy scenes.

Xanadu It was exactly 42 years since the US premiere on Monday, but like The Guardian states, Xanadu could equally be thousands of years old or sent from the future.

That’s how weird it is.

Xanadu is available for rent from Blockbuster and Youtube, for example.