In the lead up to the 7th Canadian Film Festival in Australia (August 2012), join us as we countdown the Top 100 Canadian Films of the past 30 years. We'll be posting one film a day leading up to Canada Day on July 1st 2012. Do you agree with our staff favourites? Let us know your thoughts!
A film that constantly comes up in queer cinema lists, it took a long time for me to finally see I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, by writer/director Patricia Rozema. Better known for her take on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1999), When Night Is Falling (1995) and a few TV credits, it was her quiet debut feature that won Rozema the Prix de la Jeunesse at Cannes in 1987. The title is plucked from a stream of consciousness T.S. Eliot poem written as a monologue, and the film follows with a similar sentiment.
I've Heard The Mermaids Singing opens with a to-camera/scribbly VHS (or would that be PAL?) diary entry from Polly (a perfectly cast Sheila McCarthy, who appears to have stepped straight off a Mike Leigh set). Polly’s a temporary secretary, who tells us about her life without parents or a boyfriend, who's given herself up to the idea of being a "spinster."
She seems happy enough, with a cat and houseplants scattered throughout her cosy apartment; she spends her spare hours developing her photographs of mundane streetscapes in a makeshift kitchen darkroom, which she hopes to progress beyond one day.
Despite her ditzy shortcomings, she finds work at a Toronto private art gallery under the tutelage of owner Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon), pitched as a chic French-speaking career woman to Polly’s scruffy simpleton. Soon, Gabrielle’s former lover Mary (Ann-Marie MacDonald) shows up looking about as 80s biker lez as you can get, and Polly starts to rethink her own romantic and emotional options.
The film isn’t a simple tale of how ‘Stella gets her gay groove back’, it’s a subtle, interior story that never really pushes for sexual dynamism. Instead, it relaxes into a short portrait of a socially inept young woman, who flips between total self-confidence, viewing the world with enthusiasm and whimsy, and the very embodiment of the mousy, nervous “Person Friday.”
Mermaids switches back and forth between Polly’s life disappointments and the video diary entries in which she records them, as well as showing Polly’s frequent lapses into daydreams, climbing buildings and flying through the cold Canadian skies, maple leaf beanie firmly atop her elfin hair (of course).
Amidst all this there’s double crossing and a few harsh realities to face, but it’s the slightly cringe-y flights of fantasy and genuinely awkward conversation moments that you’ll remember.
- Kate Jinx
“A short, sweet, enjoyable comedy, with a winning performance by McCarthy.” (Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com)
To see the other films in the countdown so far, click here.