Household Saints is a 1993 film

1993 in film

The year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and The Firm. -Events:...

 starring Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author ....

, Vincent D'Onofrio

Vincent D'Onofrio

Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...

, and Lili Taylor

Lili Taylor

Lili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....

. It was based on the novel by Francine Prose

Francine Prose

Francine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....

 and directed by Nancy Savoca

Nancy Savoca

Nancy Savoca is an American film screenwriter, director, and producer. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, she is the daughter of Sicilian and Argentine immigrants Calogero Savoca and Maria Elvira Savoca...

. The film explores the lives of three generations of Italian-American women over the course of the latter-half of the 20th century. The film's executive producer is Jonathan Demme

Jonathan Demme

Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...

, a long time friend of Savoca's, and her first real employer in the world of film.

Plot

The film follows the courtship and marriage of Catherine Falconetti (Ullman) to local butcher Joseph Santangelo (D'Onofrio), as well as Catherine's relationship with her overbearing Old World

Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....

 mother-in-law (Judith Malina

Judith Malina

Judith Malina is an American theater and film actress, writer, and director, who was one of the founders of The Living Theatre.-Early life:...

).

The film also focuses on Catherine and Joseph's daughter Teresa (Taylor), a devout Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 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

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

 as a saint. Teresa's teenage fantasy to become a nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

 is strained after starting a relationship with a marriage-minded young man (Michael Imperioli

Michael Imperioli

James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...

).

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.

Response

The film was on the "Best Films" list of over 20 national critics and was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Screenplay by Savoca and Guay.

Casting

Savoca cast many favorite New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 actors for the film which was shot in DeLaurentis/Carolco (now EUE Screen Gems) Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...

.

Tracy Ullman and Vincent D'Onofrio, as Lili Taylor's screen parents, are only eight years older than she is.

DVD release

Although the film met critical success and features several well-known actors, so far it has only been released on VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 with no public plans for a DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

release.