Still Confused About Tredoni's Motives

I'll admit that as much as I love this film (I watched it just last weekend while I folded some laundry), Mrs. Tredoni always confuses the hell out of me.

Doesn't Mrs. Tredoni at one point mention to Katherine that she (Tredoni) had a little girl who died on her First Communion day? Something about how God "showed" Mrs. Tredoni that she was a sinner (possibly she had gotten pregnant before marriage as well?) by taking her daughter away on a holy, special day. And now (again, I could be way off here) Mrs. Tredoni was going to teach other sinners a lesson.

It does seem that Mrs. Tredoni was unhealthily obsessed with Father Tom. Perhaps she viewed him as a son figure since she had no other children. Maybe Mrs. Tredoni thought that by cleaning and cooking for a priest, all of her past sins (and present ones) would be forgiven?

Mrs. Tredoni is highly jealous of the relationship between Katherine and Father Tom because it's an extremely close relationship - not the usual priest-parishoner relationship. At times, the relationship almost seems flirtatious. At other times, it seems that Katherine is using Father Tom to be a replacement for Karen's real father: "Just wait until Father Tom sees you in that dress!"

And there's also the whole thing with the crucifix/necklace that Father Tom presents to Karen. Tredoni felt that it was hers.

I don't know. Mrs. Tredoni confuses me.






"FRA-GEE-LAY. That must be Italian!"
"I think that says 'fragile', honey."

Do you realize that the title of your comment is a big spoiler?? Please be careful, I'm glad I didn't read this before watching the film.

I thought that Father Tom and Catherine were brother and sister and she called him Fr. Tom out of respect for his vocation. Any thoughts?

This is just my two cents, but I've always seen Mrs. Tredoni's motives as stemming from jealousy/religious hysteria/sexual frustration.

Alfred Sole wrote this movie as a jilted excommunicated Catholic, so I think that bleeds into the whole thing. My take: Mrs. Tredoni was lustful toward Father Tom, and was jealous of Catherine because she was close to him; she was also spiteful over Catherine having had Alice out of wedlock, and receiving no "punishment" from God like she did (Tredoni mentions how her daughter died on the day of her first communion). It gets a little grey when it comes to Alice; I have to wonder if Tredoni was trying to frame Alice for Karen's murder, although the shot of Alice at the end suggests something sinister— was she a part of it? Is she disturbed? Did she actually kill Karen, while Tredoni was responsible for the rest? It's hard to tell, but I think that's part of the genius of this movie.