Hartley’s most experimental feature, Flirt is a thrice-told tale about mis-directed love. It begins with his short film Surviving Desire, about a lower Manhattan "flirt" (Sage) who is torn between committing to his two-timing girlfriend (Posey) or starting a new affair with a friend’s wife. Hartley then twice translates this modern romantic allegory—in a sort of postmodern Rashomon endeavor—shifting locales and gender orientations while retaining identical dialogue and plot complications. In the first of these alternative narratives, a gay American expatriate in Berlin struggles with making a commitment. In the final installment, the story shifts to Tokyo, where the flirt is now a lovely dance student (Miho Nikaidoh) unable to commit to a lasting relationship with her American lover (Hartley himself).