‘Household Saints’

This distinctive and captivating 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, each indomitable in her own way. 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. Catherine has a daughter, Teresa (Lili Taylor), who turns out to be as fanatic in her way as Carmela. Nancy Savoca’s film is genuinely unsettling in trying to perplex audiences in new ways (Bravo Friday at 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.).