Flirting

Flirting is an Australian film set in 2 corresponding boys and girls boarding schools in rural 1960s australia released in 1991. It stars Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor, although looking at the cover you would believe Nicole Kidman was the star.

This film looks into racism, the blossoming romance between Taylor (Danny) and Newton (Thandiwe) and their ultimate separation.

This film introduced me to the Trogg's song A Girl Like You, it is featured in a dance scene early on in the film and this song is still in my ipod. It also introduced me to Noah Taylor a great aussie actor who unfortunately never really hit the big time in the US and was regaled with being Angelina Jolie's IT geek in the Tomb Raider movies and the strange band manager in Almost Famous.

His character's uniqueness and even awkwardness appeals to Thandiwe, she herself being unique in the only black student at either school. The film also delves into the political situation at the time in Uganda which I admit total ignorance about.

Nicole Kidman does have a minor part in this film as the upper school prefect, Nicola. She plays the perfect ice queen with perfection but she does show character development in an interesting scene with Thandiwe late in the movie.

Overall the film's narrative is pretty simple, it tracks their blossoming (can I throw in a coming of age as well?) relationship, and their differing but at times similar experiences in each school.

To me, this film is ultimately so australian but then I also get the conflicting setting of the boarding schools which is more of an american or british concept in my opinion. Saying that, I love anything to do with boarding schools, be it the YA series Pen Pals or the more recent (and slightly more grown up) Prep. Probably because I had so little exposure to boarding schools, I held this fascination with them.

Curiously I never saw the first film starring Taylor's Danny character The Year My Voice Broke but I picked this one up at my local video store and even bought the VHS when they upgraded to DVD as I had never seen the movie anywhere else. It was widely acclaimed in Australia the year it was released, winning the best film at the AFI awards. It is interesting to see the actors so young and vulnerable, and since Newton has gone on to more high profile roles it makes me like her that little bit more since she chose to star in this little australian film.

Image from qag.qld.gov.au