What was really under the surface of Shirley Jackson’s horror stories? Perhaps the scariest place for women in 1950s America was a lot closer to home… We dig deeper, with contributions from the women behind SHIRLEY, including Elisabeth Moss, Sarah Gubbins (writer) and Sue Chan (production designer).
SHIRLEY is available to watch on Curzon Home Cinema Now: https://bit.ly/3jHQDmb
SYNOPSIS
Director Josephine Decker takes an imaginative and eerie approach to the literary biopic, playing fast and loose with biographical details to get to the uncanny, rebellious heart of Jackson’s art. The film received its world premiere earlier this year at Sundance, where it won the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for auteur filmmaking.
Shirley Jackson (Moss) is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds (Odessa Young and Logan Lerman) upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband (Michael Stuhlbarg).
With the men increasingly absent, Shirley and Rose develop a relationship that blurs boundaries and allows both to challenge the stuffy patriarchal atmosphere of 1950s America.
★★★★★ “Shirley is sensuous and beguiling, an act of pure witchcraft” – Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent