SHIRLEY - VISIONS OF REALITY is the first feature film by the experimental filmmaker Gustav Deutsch. The film recreates thirteen tableaus of Edward Hopper’s oil paintings on film. The elaborately designed sets (in close cooperation with scenic artist Hanna Schimek) preserve the character of Hopper’s paintings, while at the same time expanding the suggestive power of each painting to fit the screen. What lies beyond the edges of the Hopper’s social realist paintings is the story Deutsch weaves throughout the film.
SHIRLEY - VISIONS OF REALITY tells the story of a woman named Shirley who takes the viewer through American social history from the 1930s to the early 60s but always on the same date, Aug. 28. Internal monologues and voice-overs narrate the protagonist’s inner crisis and the external historical events, such as World War II, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement and the onset of the Vietnam War.
SHIRLEY - VISIONS OF REALITY is a complex engagement and reflection on Hopper’s paintings as well as the relationship between reality and representation. A multitude of pop-culture references, music, literature, and cinema are integrated into the film. Deutsch takes apart the frame of references of Hopper’s work and reassembles it by bringing it cinematic life. This film reflects Deutsch’s style of “found footage” filmmaking, as well as his multi-year project on the history and meaning of cinema.

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