Themes: Mothers and Daughters, Obsessive Quests, Religious Zealotry
Main Cast: Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lili Taylor, Judith Malina, Michael Rispoli
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 124 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Household Saints is a leisurely-paced portrait of three different generations of working-class, New York-based, Italian women. Carmela Santangelo (Judith Malina) is an elderly immigrant whose son (Vincent D'Onofrio) wins a wife, Catherine Falconetti (Tracey Ullman), during a pinochle game. The pair have a daughter, Teresa (Lili Taylor), who becomes obsessed with religion, eventually believing that she will become the bride of Christ. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Review
Based on the novel by Francine Prose, Household Saints is an intimate drama that explores the nature of faith and miracles in the lives of three generations. The older Carmela Santangelo (Judith Malina) takes the Italian grandmother stereotype and darkens it a bit, into a woman soured by her own beliefs and traditions. She rejects her dowdy daughter-in-law, Catherine Falconetti (a miscast Tracey Ullman), who is put upon by her father and betrothed to her husband as a result of a bet in a card game. Rejecting the bitter old woman, Catherine's modernity takes the family into the brightly pastel '60s, as she paints over all the deep reds and replaces the religious symbols with chrome appliances. The spiritual residue left by Carmela is picked up by Catherine's daughter, Teresa (Lili Taylor), an angelic and misunderstood religious fanatic in the '70s. The supernatural events are introduced with a kind of magic realism -- a style used more effectively in the Mexican film of the same year, Like Water for Chocolate. For all the time that passes, the plot somehow drags, and the usually buoyantly funny Ullman is strangely stuck in the unfunny role of Catherine, with very little to do as the story moves away from her. However flawed, this is a film that tenderly questions the presence of miracles and how they have been displaced through time. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Victor Argo - Lino Falconetti; Michael Imperioli - Leonard Villanova; Rachael Bella - Young Teresa; Illeana Douglas - Evelyn Santangelo; Joe Grifasi - Frank Manzone; Dale Carman - Father Matthias; Leo Cimino - Mario; Rosemary de Angelis - Older Mother; John di Benedetto - Augie Santangelo; Marianne Leone - Sr. Cupertino; Sebastian Roche - Jesus; Ann Tucker - Sr. Philomena; Elizabeth Bracco - Fran; Irma St. Paule - Mary; John Lyons; Thomas Ford - Vincenzo Santagelo
Credit
Charles Lagola - Art Director, John Lyons - Casting, Eugenie Bafaloukos - Costume Designer, Nancy Savoca - Director, Elizabeth Kling - Editor, Jonathan Demme - Executive Producer, Stephen Endelman - Composer (Music Score), Kathryn Bihr - Makeup, Kalina Ivanov - Production Designer, Bobby Bukowski - Cinematographer, Richard Guay - Producer, Peter Newman - Producer, Jeff McDonald - Set Designer, Karin Wiesel - Set Designer, Greg Hull - Special Effects, William Sarokin - Sound/Sound Designer, Richard Guay - Screenwriter, Nancy Savoca - Screenwriter, Francine Prose - Book Author
The first-half of the film follows the courtship and marriage of Catherine Falconetti (Tracey Ullman) to local butcher Joseph Santangelo (Vincent D'Onofrio), as well as Catherine's relationship with her overbearing Old World mother-in-law, played by Judith Malina.
The second-half of the film focuses on Catherine and Joseph's daughter Teresa (Lili Taylor). Teresa is a devout Catholic more similar to her superstitious grandmother than with her modernized and secularized parents. As a child and young adult she puts herself through a series of trials so that she might one day be canonized as a saint. Teresa's teenage fantasy to become a nun (spiritual bride of Christ) is strained after starting a relationship with a marriage-minded young man (Michael Imperioli).
The film explores both family dynamics over the course of time as well as, on a larger level, the relationship between religious faith in miracles and modernity.
The film's executive producer is Jonathan Demme, a long time friend of Savoca's, and her first real employer in the world of film.
The film was on the "Best Films" list of over twenty national critics and was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Screenplay by Savoca and Guay.
Casting
Director Nancy Savoca cast many favorite New York actors for the film which was not shot in Manhattan's Little Italy - but at DeLaurentis/Carolco (now EUE Screen Gems) Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Tracy Ullman and Vincent D'Onofrio, as Lili Taylor's screen parents, are only eight years older than her.
DVD release
Although the film met critical success and features several well-known actors, it has as of yet only been released on VHS with no public plans for a DVD release.
