Nancy Savoca’s magical and mysterious 1993 feature film has been unavailable for many years — it was never even released on DVD or Blu-ray – so we are excited to be able to show this brand new restoration. Household Saints, based on the novel by Francine Prose, stars Vincent D’Onofrio as Joseph Santangelo, a butcher in New York’s Little Italy, who wins his wife Catherine (Tracey Ullman) in a Pinochle game. But was it luck or fate that brought them together? The ghost of Joseph’s father opines: “Man deals and God stacks the deck.” And the couple’s daughter Teresa, played by the luminous Lili Taylor, does turn out to be a complicated blessing. 1993, USA, 125 minutes

Director Nancy Savoca and Producer Richard Guay will discuss Household Saints after the screening. Nancy Savoca was the driving force in the creation of Rivertown Film Society. Both Nancy and Rich are among its founders.

Nancy’s first student film, Renata (1982, 15 minutes), also made with Richard Guay, will stream on Rivertown Film’s virtual theater from January 18 through 24, free or pay what you wish. Register at https://rivertownfilm.org/renata-a-15-minute-film-by-nancy-savoca-streaming-1-18-1-24/

When it premiered in 1993, Roger Ebert called Household Saints “a warm-hearted jewel of a movie.” Marjorie Baumgarten in the Austin Chronicle wrote: “Director Savoca is one of our great American storytellers… the performances she gleans from her players are always impeccable… she starts with some of the best talents around and inspires them to new heights. Household Saints restores one’s faith in miracles while teaching us how to invent them ourselves.” Janet Maslin in the New York Times wrote that the film’s plot “is filled with strange, homespun miracles, and this single-minded little film could be counted as one of them,” calling Household Saints “an offbeat, involving story told with perfect confidence.”

“A film that could have settled for being a masterclass in technique, but instead goes deeper, exploring questions of artistry, authorship, legacy.” NPR

“Had The Christophers just been a cross-generational punch-up, the sort of flinty showdown designed to throw off pleasurable sparks, you’d still walk away content. It remains a conduit for two of the best performances you’ll see all year.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“The Christophers is largely a comedy, but it’s also about all that we gain and lose with age, and about how we sometimes need young people to bring us back to ourselves.” – Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

“Having lost the inspiration that guided him to greatness, Julian is an artist who can no longer paint, and Lori is an artist who has lost all confidence in there being a place for her work in the larger world. For all the undercurrents about fame, commodification, and reputation that flow through The Christophers, at its core is a more plaintive lament about what it feels like to love something that doesn’t love you back.” – Alison Willmore, Vulture

“Go see The Christophers. Show up, and support a tiny, talky experiment that has no relationship to IP or sequels or box-office projection. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s also never, as Lori grudgingly notes about Julian’s work, uninteresting. And in this cultural moment, that’s an authentic win.” – Elizabeth Weitzman, Time Out

“The Christophers is a work of criticism that deftly distinguishes different approaches to criticism.” ­– Justin Chang, The New Yorker 

“Brims with hilarious dialogue, lightly satirical observations of a culture that treats art as a commodity, and satisfying payoffs to a number of story elements planted early on.” – Seth Katz, Slant Magazine

“In the end, this film about artists becomes a work of art in its own right. The more you look at it, the more its many components reveal themselves to you.” – Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap

“Ian McKellen plays Julian Sklar, a sardonic art legend who meets his intellectual match in frank preservationist Lori Butler (Michaela Coel). In a test of wits and wills held mostly in a single-setting, Soderbergh pushes both characters to return to their former passions through philosophical conversations that reflect his own career.” – Robert Daniels, Screen International

“It bats about ideas pertaining to art, commerce, ownership and legacy with dexterous aplomb and boasts two equally superb leads who make the material crackle.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“The Christophers is a talky, at times incredibly funny, comedy drama with plot reversals that make it feel like it’s on the verge of a thriller. It doesn’t end up there, at least not strictly, but it’s unpredictable enough to never make us entirely sure just where it’s heading.” – Benjamin Lee, Guardian

“There’s no room for anything shy of genius in The Christophers, a crackling original drama about artistic legacy in all its facets, directed by Steven Soderbergh , from a script by Ed Solomon (No Sudden Move) and starring two top-notch English actors of wildly different backgrounds and styles, Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, at the top of their respective games.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“With Ian McKellen in superbly crotchety form and Michaela Coel exuding chilly cunning, it’s further proof that Soderbergh remains one of American Cinema’s most inimitable, and adventurous, auteurs. – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast