Canadian film
director and
scriptwriter who came to prominence with her 1987 feature debut
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, a whimsical, refreshing, and beautiful thing notable for its use of the
Flower Song from
Lakme. It is consistently rated one of
Canada's best ever films.
Rozema has been described as a lesbian magical realist.
In 1999 she made a controversial adaptation of Mansfield Park in which Fanny Price was not the self-righteous milk-and-water prig of the book, but a sexy and powerful figure based on the letters and juvenilia of Jane Austen herself. Frances O'Connor plays the spirited Fanny, fending off amorous advances not only from Henry but also from his sister Mary. Rozema's web page for this film opens with the telling quote from Jane Austen's letters, "Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked". Harold Pinter also stars.
Other films include White Room (1990), When Night is Falling (1995), Six Gestures (1997, with Yo-Yo Ma playing), and Beckett's Happy Days (2000).
Born to a Dutch family in Sarnia in Ontario, in 1958, she was an actor in school, gained a double degree in English and philosophy, and worked as a writer and director in theatre and television before becoming a producer on CBC. After doing night classes in film production she made her first short in 1985, called Passion: A Letter in 16 mm.
Her www.patriciarozema.com is a well-designed and informative site.
Not to be confused with the British soprano Patricia Rozario.