Flirting

John Duigan, Australia, 1991, 99 minutes

For all you hard-bitten cynical students, here's a film to make you believe in love again. If you already believe in love, here's a film to bring a tear to your eye. The rites of passage/teenage love story would appear to be unpromising territory for a fresh and uplifting work - boy meets girl, girl plays hard to get, boy perseveres, girl gives in etc. etc. It's all been done before. But this film is refreshingly original. Flirting is intelligent, witty, tender and beautifully understated.

This is the middle installment of writer and director John Duigan's trilogy about growing up in Australia. Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is a bright young man with a mild stammer who sees himself as a bit of an existentialist. Maybe that is why he doesn't quite fit in to the rugby playing, boxing world of his remote public school (a piece of England Down Under) but he's got a droll sense of humour... Maybe that is what attracts the striking Ugandan played by Thandie Newton from the girl's school (actually it should probably be called a lady's school) across the lake. They flirt with each other. But not too hard. They are mature for their years. The filin convincingly traces their relationship as they are drawn together by their shared outsider status - hers is on account of the colour of her skin (which is a beautiful dusky brown). The consummation of their relationship is handled delicately in contrast to so many films of this genre. Mmmmmm love... it could almost make you forget about the woes of the world.

Review by Michael Morrison
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93