Soul Kiss video review
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: Soul Kiss.
Olivia Newton-John (vocals); vocal and instrumental accompaniment. Soul Kiss; Culture Shock; Emotional Tangle, Toughen Up; The Right Moment. MCA 80346 VHS Hi-Fi and Beta Hi-Fi $19.95.
Performance: Kinkyfied
Recording: Excellent
Olivia Newton-John has always been a much better pop singer than she’s gotten credit for, largely because her girl-next-door image obscured the notion that there might be some real sensibility there. Through the years, that implied wholesomeness has become a bit shop-worn, too, a problem Newton-John apparently hopes to eliminate by turning hot-blooded on her new video.
Three of the five segments here - Soul Kiss, Culture Shock, and Toughen Up - attempt to show that our Livvy has gotten more than just physical. She seems to have developed a taste for the more, well, nefarious arts. In the video for the title song, she comes across looking kinkier than the glass-boothed Nas-tassia Kinski in Paris, Texas, writhing around on a red satin bed à la Marilyn Monroe-albeit clothed-in her famous calender shot.
In Toughen Up, she takes riding crop in hand to teach the innocents of a posh girls’ boarding school how to get tough with their men. And in Culture Shock, she asks her boy friend if her lover can move in, intoning, “Why can’t the three of us live together?” Of course, it’s all in fun.
Just when things get their steamiest in Soul Kiss, we’re treated to grainy restagings of famous movies kisses. And to tone down the decadent sexual sparks in Toughen Up, director David Mallet turns the man-hating fantasy segments into goofy cartoon comedy.
All five videos here have their moments-more tease than sleaze - but instead of serving to present Newton-John as a mature and serious pop stylist, they reinforce her lightweight persona. At $19.95, though, the price is right, I suppose.
Α.Ν.
Photo: HELMUT NEWTON/MCA HOME VIDEO
Photo caption: Newton-John: hot-blooded