I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

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I've Heard the Mermaids Singing is a 1987 film directed by Patricia Rozema.

The film stars Sheila McCarthy as Polly, a worker for a temporary placement agency who enjoys photography as a hobby. She is placed as a secretary in an art gallery owned by Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon). Polly serves as the narrator for the film and there are frequent sequences portraying her fantasies.

Ann-Marie MacDonald plays Gabrielle's former lover Mary, a painter. Mary returns after an absence and they rekindle their relationship. Polly, who's fallen a little bit in love with Gabrielle, is inspired to submit some of her photographs anonymously for exhibition. She is crushed when Gabrielle dismisses her photos out of hand. Polly quits the gallery and goes into a depression. Gabrielle visits Polly at her flat and realizes that the discarded photographs were hers. As the film ends, Gabrielle and Polly look at more of Polly's photographs and in a short fantasy sequence are transported together to an idyllic wooded glen.

The title is taken from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot.