Themes: Romantic Betrayal, Love Triangles, Infidelity
Main Cast: Bill Sage, Martin Donovan, Parker Posey, Dwight Ewell, Dominik Bender, Geno Lechner, Miho Nikaido
Release Year: 1995
Country: JP/DE/US
Run Time: 84 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A lover, an ultimatum, a phone call, and a gun: these elements are found in each segment of Hal Hartley's Flirt, an experimental comedy-drama that essentially repeats the same story three times. But while the basic narrative remains the same -- a congenital flirt must decide whether or not to commit to a current lover, who otherwise will marry someone else -- the details differ greatly, from the location of the film to the gender of the participants. The initial segment, set in New York, tells the tale with a male flirt in turmoil over his relationship with a woman. The film then moves to Berlin, where the same drama is played out amongst a gay male couple, with an added touch of self-reflexive humor. The third and final episode takes place in Tokyo, with a female flirt and a more abstract cinematic approach, including several sequences in traditional Japanese pantomime. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
The ambitious structural device of Flirt -- essentially telling the same story in three different contexts -- is an intriguing idea, but makes for a boring movie. This is simply because the repetition becomes tiresome, with audiences not only knowing what will happen next, but almost having the lines memorized by the end of one viewing. The first segment is a straightforward tale in New York, told in the humorous Hartley style with a lot of quick deadpan dialogue. Switching to the less-witty second segment with the gay lovers in Berlin is jarring, and Hartley seems to cushion the blow with a little self-reflexive humor. In some lighthearted bits intercut with the dramatic story line, construction workers on a break discuss the film itself and its merits or failures. One wishes more of the movie could be like this, aware of its own structure and funny about it. Instead, the three stories mostly just play out, concluding with the final segment in Tokyo, which is strangely lacking in Hartley's trademark dialogue and requires more patience to watch. By staging the same story in three different time zones, it seems that important cultural comparisons would emerge. However, the nature of the style dominates over any character development, leaving the romantic situations hollow and flat. What Flirt turns out to be is a good study in form, but it doesn't quite emotionally register. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Toshizo Fujiwara - Ozu; Hal Hartley - Hal; Paul Austin - Uncredited; Robert John Burke - [Uncredited]; Peter Fitz - The Doctor; Tomoko Fujita - [Uncredited]; Erica Gimpel - Uncredited; Michael Imperioli - Uncredited; Elina Löwensohn - Nurse; Holt McCallany - Uncredited; Liana Pai - Woman at Phone Booth; Karen Sillas - Uncredited; Hans-Martin Stier - [Uncredited]; Harold Perrineau, Jr. - Man #1; Maria Schrader - Girl In Phone Booth; José Zuñiga - Driver; Chikako Hara - Yuki; Jacob Klaffke - [Uncredited]; Sebastian Koch - [Uncredited]; Eri Yu - [Uncredited]; Lars Rudolph - [Uncredited]; Boris Aljinovic - [Uncredited]; Yutaka Matsushige - [Uncredited]; Hasan Ali Mete - [Uncredited]; Hannah Sullivan - Margaret; Lianna Pal - [Uncredited]; Harold Perriman - [Uncredited]; Patricia Scanlon - [Uncredited]; Paul Schultze - [Uncredited]; Susie Bick - [Uncredited]; Jorg Biesler - [Uncredited]; Nils Brück - [Uncredited]; Bano Dost - [Uncredited]; Amina Gusner - [Uncredited]; Stefan Kolosko - [Uncredited]; Joy Kraft - [Uncredited]; Frank Schendler - [Uncredited]; Gerhard Severin - [Uncredited]; Susanna Simon - [Uncredited]; Sabine Svoboda - [Uncredited]; Yuri Aso - [Uncredited]; Junji Iljima - [Uncredited]; Morito Ikeda - [Uncredited]; Mansaku Ikouchi - [Uncredited]; Kumiko Ishizuka - [Uncredited]; Natsumi Mitzuno - [Uncredited]; Masatoshi Nagaso - [Uncredited]; Hirofumi Nakagawa - [Uncredited]; Totsuya Tahata - [Uncredited]; Meikyo Yamada - [Uncredited]; Kenji Yamaguchi - [Uncredited]; Tetsushi Yamazaki - [Uncredited]
Credit
Ric Schachtebeck - Art Director, Tomoyuki Maruo - Art Director, Tomoyuki Mazui - Art Director, Karin Wiesel - Art Director, Carleen L. Hsu - Associate Producer, Hisami Kuroiwa - Associate Producer, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Diana Jaher - Casting, Tsuyoshi Sugino - Casting, Yoshito Ohno - Choreography, Alexandra Welker - Costume Designer, Ulla Gothe - Costume Designer, Steve Apicella - First Assistant Director, Hans Schönherr - First Assistant Director, Isao Yukisada - First Assistant Director, Mary Jane April - First Assistant Director, Michael Baskett - First Assistant Director, Shinichi Shimano - First Assistant Director, Hal Hartley - Director, Hal Hartley - Editor, Steve Hamilton - Editor, Jerome Brownstein - Executive Producer, Reinhard Brundig - Executive Producer, Satoru Iseki - Executive Producer, Midori Onuma - Hair Styles, Gabrielle Theurer - Hair Styles, Larry Ganem - Location Manager, Michael Krüger - Location Manager, Shouichi Takeuchi - Location Manager, Martin Hagemann - Line Producer, Ned Rifle - Composer (Music Score), Jeffrey M. Taylor - Composer (Music Score), Judy Chin - Makeup, Midori Onuma - Makeup, Gabrielle Theurer - Makeup, Steve Rosenzweig - Production Designer, Michael Spiller - Cinematographer, Mara Catalan - Cinematographer, Makiko Tomoda - Production Manager, Roland Schmidt - Production Manager, Ted Hope - Producer, Amy Tapper - Set Designer, Edgar Hinz - Set Designer, Jeff Pullman - Sound Mixer, Norman Engel - Sound Mixer, Osamu Takizawa - Sound Mixer, Steve Silkensen - Sound Editor, Jennifer Ralston - Sound Editor, Hal Hartley - Screenwriter, Mark Bailey - Musical Performer, Lydia Kavanaugh - Musical Performer, Kelly Miller - Post Production Supervisor, Craig Paull - Production Coordinator, Katrin Rohm - Production Coordinator, Haruko Imamura - Script Supervisor, Monika von Manteuffel - Script Supervisor, Adrienne Tien - Script Supervisor, Steve Hamilton - Supervising Sound Editor, REI Media Group - Title Design
