‘Household Saints’

This distinctive 1993 film moves gracefully from knock-about high spirits to a kind of austere sublimity. The shifts in tone correspond to its portrayal of three generations of Italian-American women in New York’s Little Italy following World War II. Carmela (Judith Malina) is the deeply superstitious mother of the neighborhood butcher (Vincent D’Onofrio), who wins his 17-year-old wife, Catherine (Tracey Ullman, pictured), in a pinochle game (Bravo Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday at 10 a.m.).