I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987)
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Source: JustWatch
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me." -- T.S. Eliot
In I'VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING (1987), Polly is a lonely, clumsy temp in Toronto who talks to a video camera and takes photographs no one ever sees. She lands a job at a chic art gallery run by an impossibly sophisticated curator, and falls completely under the woman's spell.
What begins as whimsy becomes a sly skewering of the art world and the sophisticates who decide what has value. We come to suspect that the truest eye belongs to the awkward outsider nobody takes seriously.
Patricia Rozema made it as her first film, with a grant letter from David Cronenberg and special effects that reportedly cost sixty dollars. It won a standing ovation at Cannes and made its budget back nearly thirty times over.
Physical Media
Blu-rayKino Lorber (Kino Classics)United StatesRegion A2022UPC 738329260187
a member added 9/25/2026
DVDAlliance AtlantisCanadaRegion 12002
a member added 9/25/2026
DVDMiramax Home EntertainmentUnited StatesRegion 12000
a member added 9/25/2026
VHSCharter EntertainmentUnited States1988
a member added 9/25/2026
VHSNorstar Home VideoCanada
a member added 9/25/2026
About the Film
Isn't life the strangest thing you've ever seen?
- Directed By
- Patricia Rozema
- Runtime
- 81 minutes
- Released
- September 11, 1987
- Certification
- R
- Country
- Canada
- Starring
- Sheila McCarthy, Paule Baillargeon, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Richard Monette, John Evans
More Credits
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Language
- English
- Origin
- CA
- Studios
- Téléfilm Canada, Ontario Arts Council, The Ontario Film Development Corporation, ONF | NFB, Canada Council for the Arts
- Written By
- Patricia Rozema
- Produced By
- Patricia Rozema, Alexandra Raffe, Don Haig
- Cinematography
- Douglas Koch
- Music
- Mark Korven
- Also Starring
- Brenda Kamino, Patricia Rozema
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Shall I part my hair behind?
Do I dare to eat a peach?
Saw this when I worked at The M&R Fine Arts Theatres in Chicago.
Organizationally impaired
A cute awareness
I’ll have number 13
Look at the fork.
JS Strong
I’ll have a rum.
Straight up?
Whenever.
What a wonderful movie this is! Sheila McCarthy is just FANTASTIC! See it today!!
Wonderful film 🧜♀️
This is my favorite film.
One of my favorites. Brilliant film. ❤️
A truly great flick.
I still remember seeing this in the theater. It was such a lovely film.