Although Bill truly loves his girlfriend Emily, he simply cannot make up his mind when she presents him with an ultimatum: either he states his intentions and commits to their relationship or she moves to Paris for good. Bill, who’s positively terrified of a serious relationship, has no alternative but to embark on a new love affair with the wife of his best friend... An identical story featuring the same dialogues, but different emphases and characters then takes place in Berlin, revolving around Dwight, an African American homosexual who can’t commit to a serious relationship, while the third story unfolds in Tokyo, focusing on a Japanese dancer, the filmmaker’s girlfriend.
Hartley’s most experimental film is a unique meditation on love, what it means to be loved and why we can never truly attain our ideals of love.
“It was really Flirt where I began making more conscious decisions about new ways to shoot scenes and what I would write about. The first third of Flirt was shot before Amateur, which almost became like a hiatus from my main concern.” (Hal Hartley)
Hal Hartley
Born on Long Island, New York in 1959, Hartley studied at the State University of New York before starting to write screenplays and making short films. At the age of 33 Hartley made his feature debut with The Unbelievable Truth. His tragicomedy Henry Fool won Best Screenplay at Cannes in 1998. Hal Hartley is recognised as a trailblazer of independent American cinema.
filmography (selection)
1988 The Unbelievable Truth
1990 Trust
1991 Ambition (short)
1992 Surviving Desire
1992 Simple Men
1993 Amateur
1995 Flirt
1997 Henry Fool
1998 The Book Of Life
2004 The Girl From Monday
2006 Fay Grim
2013 My America
2014 Ned Rifle