Flirting (film)


Flirting is a 1991 Australian coming-of-age comedy drama film written and directed by John Duigan. The story revolves around a romance between two teenagers, and it stars Noah Taylor, who appears again as Danny Embling, the protagonist of Duigan's 1987 film The Year My Voice Broke. It also stars Thandie Newton and Nicole Kidman.
Flirting is the second in an incomplete potential trilogy of autobiographical films by Duigan. It was produced by Terry Hayes, Doug Mitchell, Barbara Gibbs and George Miller, and made by Kennedy Miller Studios, who also made the Mad Max Trilogy. The film won the 1990 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film, as The Year My Voice Broke had in 1987.

Plot

Danny, now an awkward, underdeveloped 17-year-old, has been sent away by his parents to the all-male St. Albans boarding school in rural New South Wales, Australia, in the hopes he won’t become a delinquent. The year is 1965 and it has been some time since Danny has had any romantic relationship with a girl. Danny is the butt of jokes because of his stutter and long nose. His only friend is Gilbert.
At a school rugby game, he meets and slowly becomes interested in Thandiwe, a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl attending the all-girls Cirencester Ladies’ College across the lake, while her father, a political activist, is lecturing at university in Canberra. They later meet at a debate between the two schools, and covertly during a school dance. She is punished for leaving the dance without permission and is given chores by the prefect, Nicola. Thandiwe is later befriended by Melissa and Janet.
Throughout the course of the school year, they foster a budding romance, despite the overbearing regulations inflicted upon them — specifically racial politics and social conventions. After the performance of the musical, Danny introduces his parents to Thandiwe and her parents. They later decide to return to Uganda in response to the political turmoil there. Soon Thandiwe decides to return too, and lies about her true departure date, in order to spend the night in a motel with Danny. They are discovered, leading to his expulsion. Thandiwe writes to him regularly from Uganda, but then the letters stop coming. One day a letter arrives from Nairobi saying she is finally safe there.

Cast

The script was written before The Year My Voice Broke. Although the story evokes universal themes of romance and love, some say that it also examines the properties of the "Australian character": existential isolation and strong cultural ties to Great Britain. It was filmed on location in Sydney, Bathurst, and Braidwood, New South Wales, including scenes at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.
Flirting features one of the last appearances by Nicole Kidman in an Australian-produced film before she made her transition to Hollywood ; Kidman had previously worked with director Duigan on the Australian miniseries "Vietnam." Actress Thandie Newton later said that starting at her audition, when she was 16, Duigan groomed and sexually abused her.

Music

The song "With a Girl Like You" is actually out of period, not being released until August 1966.

Reception

Flirting grossed $1,655,044 at the box office in Australia and $2,415,396 in the US. and was widely critically acclaimed. It featured on Roger Ebert's Top 10 Best Films List of 1992. Later it was ranked number 46 on Entertainment Weeklys list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The New York Times film review of 6 November 1992 commented:
The Washington Post of 20 November 1992 commented:

Awards

The film received the following 1990 AFI Awards:
The film was also nominated for the following 1990 AFI Awards: