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I felt like My Own Private Idaho (MOPI) and Flirting are "outsiders," or aren't mainstream movies because they had some of the French influences. Nudity was of course one of the things that stood out. In MOPI, there were couple scenes where main characters were photographed naked for magazines and such. This created awkward, yet somewhat humorous atmosphere in the movie, which I think set MOPI apart from other mainstream movies (same thing for Flirting as well). Another thing I noticed is that there were many episodes in a movie--sort of like The 400 Blows--they were episodic. For instance, in Flirting, there were episodes of spanking, rugby, dance hall, boxing, intense tension between girls, and Danny and Thandiwe's secret meeting. There was only one basic theme--in Flirting, for example, love between Danny and Thandiwe--and all the other episodes added different perspectives to that theme.

The French influence--nudity and many episodes--is what I think separated MOPI and Flirting from other movies and made them the "outsiders."