Flirt,based on the short film Surviving Desire, which launched the Hal Hartley series last month at Cornell Cinema, premieres in Ithaca tonight at 10:15 p.m., with additional showings Friday and Saturday at 7:45 p.m. in Uris Hall Auditorium. Admission is $4.50; $4 for students, seniors and children 12 and under.
In three episodes, Flirt, a cerebral and delightful comedy about love, jealousy and commitment, suggests a common denominator of romantic attitudes (with significant differences from place to place) among the young, hip and urbane of three continents. The film opens in New York, with Emily (Parker Posey) lolling on a bed prior to leaving for Paris. She is on the phone with Bill (Bill Sage) quizzing him on the depth of his commitment, as she's had a marriage offer from another man. Bill finally promises to get off the dime and make a decision when he picks her up in 90 minutes.
Flirt retells the same story twice more, in Berlin and Tokyo, but each time the personalities and details are different enough to make the new version fresh. Love crosses conventional barriers of race, age and sexual orientation. In Berlin the main character is a saucy young black American who swivels around in black leather pants and a gold shirt while weighing his relationship with Johan, an older German art dealer. In Tokyo the flirt is Miho, a Japanese dance student interested in her dance teacher Ozu, even though she's already involved with Hal (Hal Hartley), an American filmmaker who is about to go to Los Angeles. Commitment is difficult, the movie implies, because love is so easy to come by.
"Flirt . . . is an artful tease that is more serious than it looks," noted critic Stephen Holden, writing in The New York Times.