Nancy Savoca

Of Sicilian and Argentinean heritage, American director Nancy Savoca spent the better part of the '80s raising funds for her debut film, True Love (1989). Drawing from the lives of her parents, Savoca fashioned a story of a multi-cultural marriage; the director's attention to detail and keen sense of ethnic ambience were key factors in her winning a United States Film Festival prize. Savoca's next film Dogfight (1991) utilized the moment-by-moment approach first seen in True Love to chronicle the last day of "freedom" of a Vietnam-bound Marine. The director's most recent film was 1993's Household Saints, wherein Italian-American bachelor Vincent D'Onofrio woos and wins the spinsterish girl (Tracey Ullmann) he has "won" in a pinochle game. Like the rest of Savoca's films, Household Saints was co-scripted by Savoca and her husband Richard Guay.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide