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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1987)
"I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" Strange little allegory about dreams, art, women and life. BY E L E A N O R “MERCHANT-IVORY MAGIC.” -J a n e t Maslin. NEW YORK TIMES M A L 1 N maids “ sing” to her during her time at her craft, and by the red safelight, Polly turns from a plain o bad at her job as a person Friday that the ducklingette into a really beautiful woman. She temp agency warned her new boss about hangs her photos, unframed, around her apart her, Polly Vandersma is Everylittleperson. Or ment like wallpaper. Thoughts of money or anybody at all on an “ o f f ’ day. fame from doing this work never enter her mind. Polly is beguiled, entranced, darn near struck Black-and-white dream sequences intercut dumb by the other side of the coin, her new with the grainy-looking video narration by boss, Gabrielle. Silk-draped, aristocratic, tall Polly, and the third part of the amalgam — and able to target all the right buzzwords in the flashbacks of what has happened here. In the artbabble o f the day, Gabrielle started with end, Gabrielle has turned out to be the worst some family money, great looks and a French kind of fraud, Mary Joseph was in on it, and accent and parlayed same into the successful Polly has committed a couple of crimes. But she Church Gallery. also has figured out some Basic Truths: Art is Church is a symbol the filmmaker, Patricia what you make of it; your opinion is as valid as anyone’s; making art is as important as showing it off, and people who seem like really big deals usually turn out to be well-packaged small deals. A delicate balance of well-chosen words and visuals get us there. The dialogue is very well Rozema, uses for art in the modem world. written. The humor is clever, and there are Moneyed people and C . E . O . s , most of them art many, many quotable lines. ignorant, really, give works of art the same Paule Baillargeon was excellent as Gabrielle, reverence that rich people used to give to the the curator. Ann-Marie McDonald as the beau church. Like when they would donate expen tiful and sexy Mary Joseph was beautiful and sive works o f art to the cathedral of their choice sexy. And Sheila McCarthy as Polly Vandersma — only now the expensive art works go in the was a gas! She sparkles her way off the celluloid Board room or penthouse apartment. and into your heart. As she gropes for words and recalls the events that got her here, we can Much of Polly’s lifestyle to date has been identify with her, no problem. McCarthy, voyeuristic. Her hobby is photography. She whose film debut this was, started as a dancer, bicycles around Toronto on a funny little old and has had extensive stage training. She has bike, snapping shots of mothers and babies, played Audrey in “ Little Shop of Horrors” all lovers loving, buildings — “ things I like.” She the way to Ophelia in “ Hamlet.” Currently, she does this as a process, not thinking of her work is playing Sally Bowles in “ Cabaret.” McCarthy as art. When we see Polly in her darkroom she is simply the perfect Polly . . . a perfect person prints photos and spaces out. She goes into in tune with her own mermaid’s song. • trances and dreams sugar dreams. The Mer S “THE FINEST FILM OF THE YEAR.1 -D a p h n e Davis, ELLE “AUDACIOUS, INTELLIGENT.” -B ru c e Williamson, PLAYBOY M 1 ’ WÊ m Patricia Rozema: Filmmaker, risk-taker ‘ •¿s*- fl % Funny, a little sad, mythical, fantastical, *T ve Heard the Mermaids Singing works. atricia Rozema wrote a little story, got some money together, picked some good players, and proceeded to make a film that she would want to see. It’s so personal, unusual, and untheatrical, she worried it would attract derision at the Cannes Film Festival. Instead, her work drew cheers, standing ovations, and Rozema won the Prix de la Jeunesse award for her efforts. Rozema is what I am used to seeing in wo men film directors: young (29), pretty, articu late, and generous with ideas. Blonde (from Dutch Calvin ancestry), and casual in her dress, she is really the epitome of what it is she works through in her movie — it ain’t the packaging — it’s the process. Some o f the religious symbolism in the movie she wrote, directed, and co- produced, (with Alexandra Raffe), “ I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing,” Rozema admits, seems to upset some viewers. Some people do have trou ble when their metaphors, political or religious, are tampered with. Rozema says her plot line is a basic reworking o f the story of Jesus. She says she thinks “ E .T .” was, too, consciously so. Rozema says her film is “ autobiographical, but not really.” The characters, bumbling, lov able, “ organizationally impaired” Polly, slick and marketable Gabrielle, and intense, artistic Mary Joseph are elements from her personality, though she has never been a shutterbug, art world aficionado, or plastic artist herself. Sub divided in this way, the characters do seem to stem from one person. Gabrielle the god like or authority figure, Mary Joseph, the artistic toiler, and Polly, as the mere mortal (possibly why audiences warm so much to Polly, she is so human). The strongly mythical quality to the workings o f this film stem from Rozema’s per im ’ sonal fantasies. She says she has admired heroes and heroines, and found they have feet of clay. Rozema began her film career as third as sistant director on * ‘The Fly.” After a 5-week course on the basics of filmmaking, she got some money from the Canada and Ontario Arts Councils, and wrote and directed, “ Passion: A Letter in 16MM.” After writing “ Mermaids,” she got together $262,000, interviewed 200 actresses for Polly, and when she saw Sheila McCarthy, said to herself, "Please be able to act.” Talk about your wishes coming true. She and McCarthy achieved instant rapport, and it shows in the final product. I asked Rozema about filming a feature- length film with such a small budget. It’s my prejudice that small budget movies can be bet ter, because filmmakers have to get on with it, and can’t think o f silly things like raking the sand for “ Ishtar,” with part of the 40 million Elaine May rode to the dust for that fiasco. Rozema disagreed with me. She claims it’s not so terrible to have money to work with, but agreed that, “ if something’s not working, you can’t fix it with money.” Rozema says she would be perfectly happy to have a nice budget, story and crew, and keep making films forever, with no thoughts of dis tribution. That’s “ Polly” talking. Competition among distributors for “ I’ve Heard the Mer maids Singing” was fierce. As a debut feature film, lots of things went well, and some things went as well as they could ever go. Rozema is working on her next project, the working title for which is “ Zelda, The High Priestess of the Universe.” Ohhh-kayyy. I predict as long as she casts someone else besides Madonna for Zelda. she’ll come out looking good. • M. i MERCHANT IVORY PRODUCTIONS for CINEC0M and FILM FOUR INTERNATIONAL presents E M. FORSTER S "MAURICE" with JAMES WILBY HUGH GRANT RUPERT GRAVES DENHOLM ELLIOTT SIMON CALLOW BILLIE WHITELAW BARRY FOSTER JUDY PARFITT PHOEBE NICH0LLS and BEN KINGSLEY Directed by JAMES IVORY Produced by ISMAIL MERCHANT Screenplay KIT HESKETH-HARVEYand JAMES IVORY Photography PIERRE LH0MME Editor KATHERINE WENNING Costume Design by JENNY BEAVAN and JOHN BRIGHT Music by RICHARD ROBBINS O r . g m a l S o u n d ! ,« « k A lb u m A v m l n b l , O n R t A R n d S u n l R ■ ■ •T R IC T IO U L J H H M * IW U 01 ” * R n p # rbn < I. A v n . l . b l , F ,o n . » W * • ., < > ■ Cinecom 1 U M t l It « fU M N S « t c t t ’ A V T ia i ] •• o u t ' • o i f t f e i l J Opens Nov. 6 Shows Every Da*' Weekend Matinees 4 : 4 5 , 7 : 1 0 , 9 : 3 0 2:20 Just Out • 29 • November. 1987