Directed by Lawrence Dane
A small dance studio fights for its existence against the unscrupulous owner of a rival club.
Himmlische Körper - Aerobic nonstop, Heavenly Bodies - Himmlische Körper, Божественные тела, Небесные тела, Corpos Celestes, Himmelskörper, Božská těla, Scratch Dance, სიყვარული და აერობიკა, Любовь и аэробика, Božské telá, Corpos Esculturais
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In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers: The Story of Success", Gladwell states that the key to becoming successful at anything is to put 10,000 hours of practice into it. With that in mind, I have only 9,989.5 hours left until I become successful at watching Heavenly Bodies. I am up for the challenge.
Conventional wisdom on the holy trinity of 80s dance movies has always been Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing. Behind the scenes though, way in the back room behind closed doors, one Letterboxd loser submits the B-team (and preferred A-team) holy trinity of dance camp: Xanadu, Perfect, and Heavenly Bodies.
The DRUNKEN MASTER II of Dance Exercise Competition films.
Heavenly Bodies has more montages than Rocky IV and a better soundtrack. I want to screen this in a sauna. It can't be a ripoff of Flashdance if it explicitly references it, right?
gorilla-gram + stripper-gram + balloon-gram = date
mommy what's orgies
Bottom line up front: I absolutely loved this film!
I don't think that I've ever rooted harder for the success of a cinematic character like I have for Samantha Blair. Stuck in the secretarial pool, Samantha (played by Cynthia Dale, who you may remember as Patty in My Bloody Valentine, another great Canadian production) and her two girlfriends sign a lease on an abandoned warehouse building, turning it into Heavenly Bodies, a premier workout studio where Samantha is lead (only?) instructor. This girl has true grit, initiating romantic relationships in her own time, raising a precocious son on her own ("Mom, what's an orgies?"), and, most importantly, seeing everything as a competition and never backing down.
There are so many…
The greatest aerobics movie ever. So glad this 80s cult gem is finally on Blu-ray! The Fun City Editions disc looks great and includes a new commentary track and an interview with actor Cynthia Dale! Highly recommended!
https://www.funcityeditions.com/shop/p/heavenlybodiesstandardblu-kpffn
A pretty shameless Flashdance knockoff by Canadian exploitation actor Lawrence Dane that looks to recreate the commercial success that film generated between its sweaty softcore aerobics choreography and pulsing 80s electronic soundtrack but in its own much smaller and endearingly cheap Toronto fashion.
Cynthia Dale is very adorable and passionate as the single working-class mom turned local TV exercise celeb/small health club business woman who mostly alternates between doing sexy music video dance numbers in her 80s outfits and going through a bizarre and stilted romance with one of her generic football player students; their meet-cute involving cross-dressing, gorilla grams and balloons. It's a largely plotless drama organized around never-ending colorful montages of pure joyful sexual expression through dance, until…
Yes I spent my Saturday night watching a double bill of “La Haine” and “Heavenly Bodies”
Body horror, no one does it quite like the Canadians.
How did this glorious cinematic 80s marvel escape me all these years??? A huge blindspot for me Heavenly Bodies is an astonishing piece of Canadian history.
A mesmerizing mix of Degrassi High and Flashdance the incredible aerobics montages are plentiful and the campy dorky acting is off the chain. And that soundtrack damnnnnn. Now I know what I want to play at my wedding and funeral!
And why was the final competition who can dance the longest not the best? Lol. It made for some pretty ridiculous scenes of people flailing their bodies till they were barely able to stand up!
Best outfits of all time, stylistically ahead of its time, cheesy melodrama and actors really giving it their all!…
I want to start a religion based around this movie. I think I'd get at least 3 followers.
