- Two Family House
Infobox Film
name = Two Family House
image_size =
caption = poster
director =Raymond De Felitta
producer = Anne Harrison
Al Klingenstein
writer = Raymond De Felitta
narrator =Frank Whaley (uncredited)
starring =Michael Rispoli Kelly Macdonald Kathrine Narducci
Kevin ConwayMatt Servitto Vincent Pastore
music = Stephen EndelmanJohn Pizzarelli
cinematography = Michael Mayers
editing = David Leonard
distributor =Lions Gate Entertainment
released =August 9 ,2002
runtime = 104 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross = $1,015,055 (USA)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.twofamilyhouse.com/
amg_id = 1:186636
imdb_id = 0202641"Two Family House" is a 2000
film . It was written and directed byRaymond De Felitta ("Café Society"). The film won the Audience Award at Sundance 2000. Many of the film's actors later reached national prominence as part of theHBO cabletelevision series "The Sopranos ", includingMichael Rispoli ,Kathrine Narducci ,Matt Servitto ,Vincent Pastore andJoseph R. Gannascoli (Jackie Aprile, Sr., Charmaine Bucco, Agent Harris, Big Pussy, and Vito Spatafore, respectively, on "The Sopranos"). The songs on the film's soundtrack were done byJohn Pizzarelli and his trio, ajazz recording artist.Plot
An unseen narrator looks back to the year
1956 , onStaten Island inNew York , to one Buddy Visalo (Rispoli), an Italian guy with "Ralph Kramdenesque" dreams. Buddy is a wannabe crooner (with a voiceover provided byAndrew Poretz ). Buddy had nearly been discovered byArthur Godfrey ten years earlier (shown in flashback) when he performed at aUSO show while in the service. His fiancée, Estelle (Narducci), gave him a Hobson's choice: “Who's it gonna be, Buddy, Arthur Godfrey or me?” In a decision he’ll live to regret the rest of his life, he chooses Estelle, and over the next 10 years tries all sorts of schemes to get ahead. “I just wanna be somebody!” he’ll declare.Italian-American Buddy decides to buy a dilapidated two-family house in the Irish section of town, intending to live upstairs with his wife Estelle and run a bar downstairs, where he could live out a smaller version of his dream, singing along to a "Music Minus One" jukebox (a precursor to karaoke). Estelle has no confidence in Buddy, just wants a “normal” blue-collar husband, and manages to undermine his plans time and time again. He discovers, to his dismay and her horror, that the upstairs Irish tenants, a drunken, violent older man (played by Kevin Conway) and his very pregnant young wife (played by
Kelly Macdonald of "Trainspotting" fame) refuse to move and won't pay rent.When the baby is born, it's clear his father was black – and the much older, Irish husband immediately skulks off, knowing it's not his child. Buddy evicts mother and child, then feels guilt and sets her up in a flat while she sorts out an adoption. Estelle's lack of faith, the small-minded prejudices and low ambitions of his “friends,” the Irish lass's spirit, Buddy's dream, racial prejudice, and the baby's fate (he grows up to be the narrator of the movie) play out.
Trivia
*The song "Lonely For You", sung in the movie by Buddy as well as jazz singer
John Pizzarelli (who also has a cameo as Arthur Godfrey), was written by the director's father, film directorFrank De Filitta , over 40 years earlier, but had never been otherwise recorded.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.