Thoughts on Flirt

  Criterion is doing a collection on Hal Hartley's films, and I really do like his style of deadpan humor in his comedies, my favorites of his films being Trust and The Unbelievable Truth, mostly for Adrienne Shelly's performances. I'm also a Long Island native like Hartley, so his early films have a hometown feel to it, being set on Long Island and featuring a lot of local actors from L.I. and NYC.

    I wasn't sure if I had seen Flirt (1995) before, and if I had, I hadn't remembered it. I liked how it felt like an experiment, taking the same story and telling it three times, in three international cities (New York City, Berlin, and Tokyo), switching up the genders and sexualities of the protagonists, and showing three people going through the same motions and dialogue, where a lover has to decide whether to commit to a partner going away on a business trip, and they are also seeing a partner who is with someone else in a steady relationship, showing how similar strangers can be when dealing with matters of love quadrangles, infidelities, and jealousy. 

 

  The New York City segment I thought was OK, but more notable for Parker Posey's one scene as Emily, Bill's (Bill Sage) lover, who is leaving for Paris for a business trip. Bill is a "loose flirt" who cannot commit to a relationship, and thinks him being with Emily for six months is an achievement for himself. The segment features Michael Imperioli, Martin Donovan, Robert John Burke, and an early role by Harold Perrineau. The story ends in a clash involving his other lover's husband in a diner.

 

  The Berlin segment I liked a lot, mostly for giving a lead role to Dwight Ewell, best known as Hooper X from Chasing Amy. He also had minor roles in Amateur and Party Girl, and just always stood out as a gay Black man in 90s indie cinema with a quiet, chill vibe to him. In this segment, he's living in Berlin and seeing a man who is going on a business trip to New York, and is also accused of being a loose flirt and unable to commit to anyone. Like in the first segment where Bill is waiting by the phone booth as it's occupied, so does Dwight in Berlin with a woman using the phone, the difference being the currency a quarter in NYC and a phone card in Berlin. The story ends with a confrontation with his other lover's wife.

    The third segment I didn't find as interesting, but liked that it had a female lead after the first two had male leads. Miho (Miho Nikaido) is a dancer whose lover (Hartley in a cameo) is going to Los Angeles for a business trip. Like the first two segments, she is also accused of being a flirt who can't commit. This story takes more of a different turn, as the ending is more her self-destruction than inflicted upon her by others.

    I enjoyed watching this, more as like a series of short films with the same dialogue and themes, as a slice of 90s indie film, with an international flair a la Jarmusch's Night on Earth.