Synopsis
(synopsis)
(not for publication)
“….we have to believe we are magic,
nothing can stand in our way….”
Seated in the rocks at the beach playing a song on his clarinet is a middle-aged man, Danny McGuire (GENE KELLY).
In another part of the city, young Sonny Malone (MICHAEL BECK) is working on a painting. Angrily, he rips the work to pieces, tossing them out of the window.
As the torn pieces fly through the air, they make their way to a wall covered with a painting of the nine Muses. When the pieces touch the painting, the figures of the nine women suddenly come to life, stepping out of the wall….
“I’m alive, and the world shines for me today,
I’m alive, suddenly I am here today….”
The beautiful young women begin darting across the landscape, heading everywhere. One of them is blonde (OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN).
“….seems like forever and a day,
though I could never feel this way,
is this really me. I’m alive, I’m alive….”
She rollerskaing on the boardwalk adjacent to the beach, as though she were on the wind. Up ahead, Sonny is walking alone. She skates up to him. The Muse kisses him. Before the starled Sonny realizes what has happened, she has disappeared.
That same day, Sonny is forced to return to his old job at Airflo Records, where he reproduces album covers for display. He hates the work but must do it to support himself. Sonny has one of his typical run0ins with his boss, Simpson (JAMES SLOYAN), who wants assembly line work, not creativity.
Sonny’s first assignment is to reproduce a record album cover of a beautiful woman against the background of an old Art Deco auditorium. The woman, to Sonny’s amazment, is the beautiful woman who kissed him. Of the sereveral people he asks, no one has any idea who she is; not even the photographer (AHARON IPALE) who took her picture.
Sonny returns to the beach where he first saw her. There he meets Danny, playing his clarinet on the rocks. As the two men talk, the beautiful young women goes gliding by. Sonny gives chase, but she always remains just out of reach. He almost catches her, and instead falls from the pier into the water.
Once more, she disappears.
Danny helps Sonny out of the water. Now, more than ever, Sonny knows he must find her.
As he heads home, Sonny finds himself in front of the auditorium on the album cover, which he had earlier been painting. He goes inside the building. It is deserted.
He stands there in the emptiness. He hears a song coming from nowhere….coming from everywhere…
“….come take my hand
you should know me
I’ve always been in your mind
you know that I’ll be kind
I’ll be guiding you….”
And then skating out from the shadows. There she is….Beautiful….Achingly beautiful. Sonny speaks to her. She says, with a mysterious smile, “We’ll see each other again.” She begins skating away. “Bye, Sonny.”
….and if all your hopes survive,
destiny will arrive,
bring all your dreams alive
for you….”
He asks her name.
“Kira….Kira….Kira….” echoes through the dark, empty space as she disappears into the shadows. Sonny stands there alone in the deserted auditorium.
At work the nest day, Sonny argues with Simpson about spending so much time painting Kira. Copy the covers, he tells him, stop seeing more in the painting than actually exists.
Sonny goes to a record store, The Platinum Palace, to display some album covers. He runs into Danny again. The two men discover they both love music. All kinds of music. From Glenn Miller to rock ‘ roll.
Happily carrying his new purchase – a Glenn Miller album – Danny invites Sonny to his house. It’s palatial. Danny is not a clarinet-playing bum at all. He’s a successful building contractor. But he was in the music business years ago, and he loved it with a passion. He still dose.
Those were great years, he remembers. He played with Glenn Miller, and knew all the greats. Then he went off to start his own club. Danny McGuire’s. Eventually, he gave it up to join the family construction business.
He quit, he says, because of a woman. In the background, a female vocalist is heard on the stereo singing a 1940’s big band arrangement of the standard, “You Made Me Love You.” Danny was in love with the band’s singer. One day she left and never returned. That was when he lost all interest in the club. Sonny looks at photographs in the Glenn Miller album. The band singer looks remarkably like Kira.
Danny still has one dream left. He wants to open another club. It has to be special. Really unique. He asks Sonny to help him find a place. Sonny’s an artist, he says. He has a good eyes. Saying he’ll think about it, Sonny leaves.
Alone in his huge, beautiful appointed living room, Danny finds the past alive for him again. He remembers the music. He remembers the club. He remembers the bandstand and her – dressed in a WAC uniform, her long blonde hair swept up under a military cap – singing….
“….whenever you’re away from me
Wherever you go
You’re never far away from me
I want you to know….”
He remembers his love. And as he remembers, Kira appears, and the two sing, and then they begin to dance….
“….I only have to close my eyes, dear
And suddenly I’m where you are….”
Then he’s in the present again. The past is gone, as empty as his two arms which had been holding Kira just moments ago.
That night, as Sonny is painting at Airflo Records, Kira suddenly appears to him. He tells her it is the first time he’s painted something he cares about – her. Sonny takes her into a recording studio, where magical effects can be achived by flashing all sorts of pictures on a wide screen behind them. Only the biggest rock groups record there he says. They use the picture backgrounds for inspiration. “Inspiration,” she says, “Sounds perfect.”
They go into the control booth, and Sonny turns on the knobs and panel lights. The background begins changing behind them.
“….she walks in I’m suddenly a hero
I’m taken in, my hopes begins to rise….”
They move out of the booth and begin a dance on skates. Scene changes around them as they dance together against the magically changing backgrounds – skyscraper, a oasis, a rainstorm….
“….why do I feel so alive when you’re near
there’s no way any hurt can get through
longing to spend every moment of the day with you….”
Breaking the mood, an indignant Simpson appears. Sonny and Kira skate hurriedly out of the studio.
As they stroll together, Sonny tries to learn more about her. Kira, though, is evasive. She guides them to the old auditorium. She says it would be perfect for the new club. Despite its present appearance, it could be anything Sonny and Danny want it to be. It’s all in the dream, she says.
For Kira, dreams are easy. For Sonny – he doesn’t know what to believe in.
Sonny brings Danny to the auditorium. At first, Danny dismisses it outright. But it does have something. Soon, each of the men begin to visualize the club.
Danny seems it as all 1940’s – with a bandstand, and zoot-suited dancers, man and women in service uniforms and a trio of dancers:
“….forget about the blues tonight, sweet thing
forget about the rules tonight, sweet thing
I wanna dance with you
until the sun comes creepin’ through….”
Sonny envisions the club differently – the style is definitely the 80’s. He sees a group, like The Tubes (THEMSELVES), with dancers in outrageously colored costumes. The music is electrified rock:
“….lover, I want you to know
I won’t take a back seat
ain’t willing to let you go
I won’t take a back seat….”
Their separate visions tale shape before their eyes, and than miraculously merge into one.
“….I want to dance with you
----got some dancin’ to do----
….I want to dancin’ with you
----got some dancin’ to do----“
It’s perfect. It’s Danny’s dream come true. And Sonny’s. The 40’s meet the 80’s.
Danny wants to go for it, but he had one condition: Sonny must be the partner. After some hesitation, Sonny agrees. As they consider a name for the club, Kira appears, meeting Danny for the first time. Or is it?
“Don’t I know you?” he asks
Smiling her cryptic smile, Kira recites from Coleridge’s poem:
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree….”
XANADU.
Sonny quits his job at Airflo Records. For perhaps the first time in his life, he is truly excited. Really happy.
That night he and Kira celebrate together, standing in the hills above the Hollywood Bowl. Sonny is in love with her. She cannot commit herself. In response to his questions, she simply says she lives with her sisters. On the second floor.
“….don’t walk away, don’t say goodbye
don’t turn around, don’t let it die….”
And as they stand there under the star-littered sky, Sonny and Kira miraculously become figures on a world of fantasy, in which magically they are transformed into birds, into fishes… Even in the unreality of this brief new world, she continues to elude him.
Construction on XANADU begins. Telling the workers they are building a dream, Danny generously provides champagne for them. The dream is coming true. Sonny and Kira tell Danny he needs new clothes for the opening. He needs pizazz. Glitz.
And glitz is what he gets when they take him on an outrageous boutique.
“….everybody all around the world
gotta tell you what I just heard
there’s gonna be a party all over the world….”
Danny dances through numerous changes of wardrobe, as flamboyantly dressed dancers ass to the festive as atmosphere of the store.
“….all over the world, everybody got the word
everybody, everywhere is gonna feel tonight….”
And there is XANADU. Almost completed. At least. The opening is tomorrow night. Danny makes final plans for the opening, as Sonny and Kira silently dance together, their arms wound around each other.
Danny admits to Kira that he is the most nervous he’s been since 1945.
“Just pretend that we’re back in 1945 all over again,” she tells him.
“It is 1945 all over again,” he smiles.
Walking along the beach later that night, Sonny tells Kira he loves her. She says she loves him too. Immediately, Kira pulls away. “This was never supposed to happen,” she says. “All I was sent to do was make XANADU happen.”
In his apartment, Kira explains. He’s been kissed by a Muse. Kira tells him she’s a daughter of Zeus. Muses are just supposed to inspire. Not feel. She broke the rules.
Sonny is stunned. Kira turns on the TV to show the power of her magic. The characters in an old gangster movie speak to Sonny, confirming Kira’s story. Kira, in fact, is in the movie; she even waves at Sonny.
“It should ever have happened,” she tells Sonny. But it did. It doesn’t matter, though, she has to leave. It’s that simple. And that difficult. Sonny is desperate. I love you, she tells him. “I’ll love you forever.”
And she disappears.
“I’ll love you forever.”
The next morning, Danny finds Sonny on the beach. The older man is excited about tonight’s opening. The artist doesn’t care anymore. “There’s no XANADU, because there’s no Kira,” he says. “She made it real.” Kira was just a dream and dreams die.
“Dreams don’t die,” says Danny, “we kill them. Don’t let the dream and the love die. If she got here, there’s a way to get there! It’s up to you.”
“….our love couldn’t go wrong, how could I know
I was only dreaming
And now, now that you’re gone, I will go on
really believing—I take the fall….”
The distraught Sonny races along the boardwalk desperately searching the crowd for kira.
“….I see you in a dream, you turn and start to go
I call you once more, guess that I’m takin’ the fall….”
And then, he comes upon the mural of the nine Muses. He pauses, thinking hard, and then totally determined, races to the wall. With all the energy and motion he can muster, he crashes through! Into somewhere. Where?
In an unreal landscape amid ribbons of light, he find Kira. They are at a great distance from each other, unable to touch. She cannot leave with him. She wants to—but it is impossible. It’s never been done.
A booming voice surrounds them. The voice tell Sonny to immediately. The two lovers plead with him to allow Kira to go as well. Never. Then a softer voice is heard, asking him to reconsider. The response is a resounding No! Other people have dreams too, he says. One dream—one Muse.
No!
And Sonny disappears.
Kira is alone.
“….but how can our love succeed
a miracle is what we need
and so I appeal to you
keep me suspended in time with you
don’t let this moment die
I get a feeling when I’m with you
none of the rules apply….”
And then, there is a stillness. Like the concerned and caring father he is, and, too, at the cajoling of his consort, he relents. He allows Kira to return to earth “for just a moment.”
But what a moment it is! The opening of XANADU! Mage. Excitement. Singing. Dancing. A delirious extravaganza. Truly, a place where….
“….a million lights are dancing
and there you are, a shooting star
an everlasting world and you’re here with me….”
And Kira sings and dances like the goddess she is in a dazzling array of costumes and musical styles with her eight sisters, while a hundred of others—especially Sonny and Danny—joyously celebrate this momentous nights.
“….and now open your eyes and see
what we have made is real
we are in Xanadu….”
Sonny and Kira are together again for one last shinning moment. For one last glorious moment. For one last shared moment of a eternal love. A love which will never die.
And then, with her eight sisters Muses, Kira magically ascends and is transformed into pure energy and disappears in an incandescent shower of light.
Kira is gone, and Sonny, heartbroken, sits down with his friend Danny. You must have a drink, insists Danny. A waitress appears to take his order. Sonny looks up. The beautiful woman before him is the very embodiment of Kira.
The two begin to chat happily, almost familiarly, like two people who know in an instant, the long, lonely, wait is finally over….
“….and if all your hopes survives,
destiny will arrive
bring all your dreams alive
for you….”