Flirt

When people ask me, "What's an art house film," I usually point them to Godard, but here's another entry on the list. It's the same ~25 minute sequence shot three times, although there's a bit done to differentiate them. Thankfully, I'm already a fan of Hartley; I love his humor and his playhouse of actors. If I wasn't a fan, though, I'd see this as a film school project. It didn't really work for me even though it was an interesting idea.

In the end, I appreciated this more than I thought I would while I was watching the film. The repetition is definitely off-putting, but I appreciated the way the film raised the notion that the ambiguity of flirtatiousness is fundamentally due to a lack of willingness to truly trust another person. The conclusion is a kind of grace note in the midst of all this, a simple offer of trust that seals a bond.

I like how Hartley's characters seem like perfectly reasonable people until they start to do totally unhinged things. So at first I was interested. When the second (Berlin) episode used almost exactly the same dialogue, I got antsy. When I realized I was probably going to have to sit through it all AGAIN, I wanted to shoot myself. Thank god the Japan episode mixed it up a bit--it's the most affecting one. Best part: German construction guys discussing the twink's dilemma in VERY German fashion.

Not Hartley's most compelling work.

I liked how the first two are essentially identical except for sexual orientation, and then the third plays out almost completely differently (though I thought when it began it was going to be an entirely new story and was disappointed when the familiar lines started being spoken). Although I get the feeling that this setup-consolidation-punchline structure was not intentional, I found it interesting nonetheless watching a movie constructed like a joke.

Hartley's most challenging and overtly Godard-esque. Uneven, but the opening section alone is among his best work.

Hal Hartley as Himself!

After halfway through the movie the filmmaker has a confession direct to the audience. Is there is a point shooting a movie with the same web of events over three different set of people. There may have been, here is not.

Another of Hartley's nicely weird little movies