"Shirley: Visions of reality" is an unconventional movie. Gustav Deutsch, the director, is also an unconventional artist. He only turned to movie making after engaging himself in various other art forms
The film consists of 13 episodes, and for each episode the set consists of an imitation of a Hopper painting. As a viewer one gets almost the impression of visiting an exhibition of Hopper paintings.
The film has two themes. Theme one is the combination of various forms of the fine arts. Theme two is the interaction (and mutual influence) between art and reality. In relation to the second theme the philosophy of Plato is discussed, so this film is really heavy stuff
The film portrays the American history from the period 1931 - 1963. It thereby partially overlaps with "Forrest gump" (1994, Robert Zemeckis), but is of a much more philosophical nature. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) is close to the important events of this period but does not have an opinion about them. Shirley (Stephanie Cumming) sees the important evensts from the distance, but does have en opinion about them
"Shirley: Visions of reality" is cleverly tought out and well done, but nevertheless a little too long at the end.
