Patricia Rozema
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Patricia Rozema
Biography
Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema is known for making films imbued with feminist passion that enrapture art-house audiences even as they mystify those headed for the multiplex. She made an auspicious feature directorial debut in 1987 with I've Heard the Mermaids Singing. The story of an unfulfilled thirty-something single woman living in Toronto, the film -- which Rozema also wrote, co-produced, and edited -- earned stellar reviews and was subsequently voted by 100 international critics, filmmakers, and scholars as one of the ten best Canadian films ever made. Rozema went on to win additional recognition with her somewhat controversial adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which was released in 1999.The daughter of strict Dutch Calvinist immigrants, Rozema was born in Ontario in 1958 and raised in Sarnia, a small petrochemical industrial town on Lake Huron. Growing up with little access to films or TV, it was not until she went on a date to see The Exorcist (1973) that she was properly introduced to the cinema. After going on to earn her B.A. in philosophy and English literature at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI (where she also won a number of awards for theatrical writing and directing), she returned to Canada in 1981 and worked on the CBC nightly news program The Journal. Rozema began her film career five years later after taking a five-week-long night course in film production. She debuted with Passion: A Letter in 16mm, a short that garnered a prize at the 1985 Chicago Film Festival. Two years later, after working as an assistant director on David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) and on a few television series, she made her major directorial debut with I've Heard the Mermaids Singing.
The spirited, deeply felt tale of an aspiring photographer (the superb Sheila McCarthy) who develops a complicated relationship with her employer, an elegant but bitter art curator (Paule Baillargeon), I've Heard the Mermaids Singing won the Prix de la Jeuness at Cannes that year and a lavish dose of international acclaim for Rozema. Distributed in over 40 countries, its success created anticipation for the filmmaker's next feature, 1991's The White Room. The story of a struggling writer (Maurice Godin) whose witnessing of the murder of a singer (Margot Kidder) drives him on a quest for redemption, The White Room was described by one reviewer as "a work of dark, conflicted magic that might have been cut from Blue Velvet by Edward Scissorhands." Overtly intellectual and filled with self-conscious symbolism, it was not as warmly received as Rozema's previous work. She followed it with a short contribution to Montreal Vu Par... (1991), an anthology film commissioned to celebrate Montreal's 350th birthday which also showcased the work of Atom Egoyan, Denys Arcand, Léa Pool, Michael Brault, and Jacques Leduc.
Rozema's next directorial effort, When Night Is Falling (1995), did not enjoy nearly the same amount of acclaim as her previous films. A drama about a Christian college professor (Pascale Bussières) who becomes romantically involved with a beautiful circus performer (Rachel Crawford), the film was long on magical realism but short, as many reviewers pointed out, on convincing dialogue and uncontrived plot. Aside from directing the television documentary Yo-Yo Ma Inspired By Bach: Six Gestures (1997), Rozema did not return to the director's chair until 1998, when she adapted Austen's Mansfield Park for the screen. Although the film drew fire from Austen scholars for its inclusion of sex scenes and implied lesbian desire, it earned fairly good reviews and did sound business at the box office. It was also strengthened by the work of its cast, which included Frances O'Connor as the heroine Fanny Price, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, and Embeth Davidtz. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
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Patricia Rozema
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Patricia Rozema
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| Patricia Rozema | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 20, 1958 Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation | Film director Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1985 – Present |
Patricia Rozema (born August 20, 1958) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.
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Contents
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Life and career
Rozema was born in Kingston, Ontario and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Her parents, Jacoba Berandina (née Vos) and Jan Rozema, were Dutch Calvinists.[1][2] Television was severely restricted and she didn’t go to a movie theatre until she was 16 years old. Rozema studied philosophy and English literature at Calvin College in Michigan. After a brief stint as a print and then television journalist (CBC Television’s The Journal), she directed her first feature, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, a serious comedy about a socially inept Girl Friday (Sheila McCarthy as Polly), which made one of the most outstanding feature debuts in the history of Canadian cinema. At the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing won the Prix de la Jeunesse. That same year, it was voted one of Canada’s ten best films ever as polled by 100 international critics.[citation needed]
Rozema also directed the Six Gestures (part of the Yo-Yo Ma Inspired by Bach television series), which combined images of Yo-Yo Ma performing with skating sequences by Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean, interwoven with J.S. Bach's first-person narrative. Six Gestures was nominated for a Grammy[citation needed] and was awarded a Prime Time Emmy[citation needed], the top award in North American television, for Outstanding Classical Music-Dance Program, as well as a Golden Rose, the top television award in Europe (1998).[citation needed]
She then directed the romance, When Night Is Falling in 1995 starring Pascale Bussières, and including Don McKellar and Tracy Wright.
Rozema’s next two films were made outside Canada. Mansfield Park (1999, U.K., Miramax) is a revisionist adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel of that name. Mansfield Park opened the 1999 World Film Festival in Montreal, the Chicago Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival in San Francisco and was featured as a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival.[citation needed]
Happy Days (2000), an Irish production, is a film version of Samuel Beckett’s humorously despairing play in which a woman lives partially buried in a mound of sand. Happy Days is part of The Beckett Film Project (a project aimed at filming all of Beckett's plays), which includes work by directors David Mamet, Neil Jordan, Anthony Minghella and Atom Egoyan.
Throughout her career Rozema has written, directed, edited and produced a number of short films, including Passion: A Letter in 16mm (1985); Urban Menace (1986); Desperanto (1991) as part of Montreal Vu Par; This Might Be Good (2000) for the Toronto International Film Festival; and Suspect (2005) which was reproduced in the journal Alphabet City 10 – Suspect (MIT Press).
Her film credits also include White Room (1990) and When Night is Falling (1995), which debuted in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival and won festival audience prizes around the world. It was voted one of the top 200 films of the 20th century “Top 200 of 2000” by the Chlotrudus Society of Independent Film. Also, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008), which she directed and ghost wrote, was based on the phenomenally successful American Girl book series. The film earned Rozema a Director’s Guild of Canada Award nomination for Best Director and New York Times critic A. O. Scott hailed Abigail Breslin for turning in one of the top five female performances of the year.
Rozema’s television credits include the pilot and two subsequent episodes of HBO’s groundbreaking dramatic series Tell Me You Love Me (2008), an episode of the critically acclaimed HBO series In Treatment (2010), and episodes of the Canadian television sitcom Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays, scheduled to debut on CBC Television in fall 2011.[3]
Rozema and co-writer Michael Suscy received an Emmy nomination (Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special), a Writers Guild of America Award nomination (Long Form – Original) and a PEN USA Award nomination in Screenplay for the HBO movie Grey Gardens (2009).
Filmography
- Urban Menace (short), director (1984)
- Passion: A Letter in 16 mm (short) (1985)
- Head Office, Assistant Director (1985)
- The Fly, 3rd Assistant Director (1986)
- I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, director, writer, producer (1987)
- White Room, director, writer, co-producer
- Desperanto (short), director, writer 1991.
- When Night is Falling, director, writer (1995)
- Curtis's Charm, executive producer (1995)
- At My Back I Always Hear (tv episode) (1996)
- Six Gestures, from series "Yo-Yo Ma, Inspired by Bach" director, writer (1997)
- The Shape I Think (short) (1997)
- Mansfield Park, director, writer (1999)
- Happy Days director (2000)
- This Might Be Good (short), director, writer (2000)
- A Wrinkle In Time, executive producer (2003)
- Tell Me You Love Me, HBO pilot and two episodes, director (2008)
- Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, director (2008)
- Grey Gardens, co-writer (2009)
- In Treatment, Episode: Frances – Week 3, director (2010)
Awards
- Second prize at the Chicago International Film Festival for her short Passion: A Letter in 16 mm.
- I've Heard the Mermaids Singing won the Prix de la Jeunesse at Director's Fortnight in Cannes and was nominated for Best Picture – with Rozema garnering nominations Best Director and Best Screenplay – at the 9th Genie Awards in 1988. The film received 17 further awards. It is listed as one of the Best Canadian Films of All Time by the International Film Critics association.
- White Room earned 4 prizes, and 3 Genie nominations.
- When Night Is Falling premiered in competition in the 45th Berlin International Film Festival[4] and went on to win over 30 awards from different countries and at various gay and lesbian film festivals.
- Yo-Yo Ma, Inspired by Bach"" Rozema's episode "Six Gestures" won a Prime Time Emmy Award and was nominated for a Grammy. (other contributors included Atom Egoyan)
References
- ^ Wise, Wyndham (2001), Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film, University of Toronto Press, p. 185, ISBN 0-8020-8398-6
- ^ Patricia Rozema Biography (1958-)
- ^ "Camelot & cover songs: Inside CBC’s new fall lineup". National Post, June 8, 2011.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1995 Programme". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1995/02_programm_1995/02_Programm_1995.html. Retrieved 2012-01-01.
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Patricia Rozema |
- Official website
- Patricia Rozema – femfilm.ca: Canadian Women Film Directors Database
- Patricia Rozema at the Internet Movie Database
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