Shirley: Visions of Reality

Edward Hopper was a prominent American artist and leading representative of the realists, famous for capturing contemporary American life in his work. Hopper has inspired filmmakers in the past, his poetic style influencing the look of the cult film Blade Runner; he, himself was a proponent of film noir. Now thirteen of his canvases are brought to life in this highly stylised film by leading Austrian experimenter Gustav Deutsch. The director finds a unique recipe for transforming the pictures into film images and offers much more than a mere attempt to set them in motion. The film is also a complex portrait of the titular protagonist, the actress Shirley: covering three decades, the work evinces a powerful inner tension and mystery, despite its absence of linear plot and its introspective mood. The viewer’s attention will certainly be drawn not only to the pure elegance of the thirteen scenes, but also to the intriguing heroine who refuses to accept history the way it is. Alongside Shirley, various objects also become the bearers of historical memory, evoking the era in which the film unfolds.