I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987)

Name: I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Director: Patricia Rozema
Released: 1987-09-11

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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

DVDAlliance AtlantisCanadaRegion 12002

DVDMiramax Home EntertainmentUnited StatesRegion 12000

VHSCharter EntertainmentUnited States1988

VHSNorstar Home VideoCanada

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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