Flirt

source: Flirt

Trailer—Flirt

Flirt

The EXACT scene was played out over and over again WORD for freaking WORD but the gimmick was this same dull scene was acted out by DIFFERENT people in DIFFERENT cities. Wow! What a concept! When we got to what I think was the third go round with the gay couple, I just said to myself, "you've got to be an idiot to endure one more second of this garbage"! At that moment, for the first and only time in my film going history, I had ZERO interest in the balance of a film. I stick with even the most boring and goriest of movies because there is always hope that things will improve. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get something out of the experience. Not this time. "Flirt" was just too unbearable to stay in the theater. What a piece of SCHIT! Lowest possible rating 1/10

Flirt being the fifth Hal Hartley-film I've seen it's also the one I appreciated the least. You get to follow the same story in different places of the world (NY, Berlin, Tokyo) with different people. Although the run time wasn't even one and a half hour it felt longer. It must depend on that Berlin and Tokyo didn't really pass my quality control. And that might depend on that the previous Hartley-films I've seen have really been great and that Flirt's NY-episode also was great. It would have worked better as a short film. All by itself. But then seeing almost exactly the same "short story" again only with a twist didn't appeal to me much I discovered later on. If you like Hartley maybe you should see Flirt all because his trustful actors (Martin Donovan, Elina Löwensohn, Bill Sage, Michael Imperioli), his pretty unique way of making film and of course because of Ned Rifle's music.

It's three movie segments using the same story. One takes place in New York, another in Berlin, and the last one in Tokyo. In New York, Emily (Parker Posey) is leaving for Paris and her partner Bill is wondering if he should hook up with someone else. He gets shot in the face by the other woman's husband. The same story repeats in the other cities. Hal Hartley is trying more stuff. It has his mannered speech and peculiar shooting style. The big idea here is repeating the same story three times. It's a big idea more than a film. I'm not sure what it achieves unless the movie makes them completely different like doing it in Japanese. Experimentation is important and I'm glad that he tried even if it doesn't achieve anything great.

i just had to write a review for this b/c it is one of the worst films i had ever seen and i can't remember if i walked out of the theatre or not. as you know, the same story is told 3x incl. the same dialogue. the same things happen. this is not Run Lola Run. this is shite (IMHO). it wasn't interesting to watch the story loop first time, and therefore iterations #2 & #3 decline in value. the Law of Diminishing Returns grinds the storyline into mathematical powder, as when you start with nothing (or to be fair, not much), and then reduce it, this is what you get. there was no way for me to appreciate it on any other level. using handpuppets instead of actors might have garnered more audience sympathy for the characters and added depth to their 2D cardboard cutouts.

The idea of transporting a story and telling it in three continents is an intriguing one. What we have in Flirt is a weak New York story which verges on the ridiculous when transported to Berlin and Tokyo, particularly when it comes to handgun ownership. The similarities are unsubtle and contrived, and you feel the actors, who do well in this, are fighting a very stilted script. Maybe if Hal Hartley had spent more time exploring the differences in how the story would play in different cultures and less time making ‘high quality titillation' (his own description) then it might have made it a better viewing experience.

Definitely an Art movie, sort of the anti-Rashômon: three different events described as if they were the same. Obviously such a film foregrounds the direction, and the dialog is recognizably Hartleyesque. Hal Hartley weaves the same dialog through three only roughly similar stories given by their settings, the characters involved, and the cinematic treatments different meanings. An art film about how films make art out of life. Or something. Warning: if you lack intellectual curiosity (it's definitely not for the passive viewer) or are homophobic this will push your buttons; hence the 1-out-of-10 ratings above.

Although I'm a big fan of Hal Hartley's previous work (Trust, The Unbelievable Truth), I was a bit disappointed by Flirt. There are some clever elements to the film, including Hartley's always excellent dialog sequences. The repetition, providing different views on the same plot sequence, was well done. Overall, an above-average movie, particularly for Hartley followers.