Avalon

Director: Barry Levinson Barry Levinson

Overview

The third of director Barry Levinson's autobiographical "Baltimore Trilogy" (the first two entries were Diner and Tin Men), Avalon covers nearly forty years in the lives of an immigrant Jewish family. Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) emigrates to Baltimore in 1914, where Sam's brothers Gabriel (Lou Jacobi), Hymie (Leo L. Fuchs), and Nathan (Israel Rubinek) are awaiting his arrival. By and by, Sam meets his future wife, Eva (Joan Plowright). With the introduction of the Krichinsky's grown son Jules (Aidan Quinn), the film ventures into culture-clash country. Unwilling to become a manual laborer like his dad, Jules opts for the life of a door-to-door salesman. Eventually, he teams with his cousin Izzy (Kevin Pollak) to open the first TV store in Baltimore. Thereafter, the disintegration of the Krichinsky family is paralleled by the rise of TV's omnipresence in the American home. Avalon's elegiac and melancholy effect is underlined by Randy Newman's soulful musical score.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/17/2016
UPC:	0043396478169
Original Release:	1990
Rating:	PG
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Language:	English
Sales rank:	4,516

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Armin Mueller-Stahl	Sam Krichinsky
Leo Fuchs	Hymie Krichinsky
Lou Jacobi	Gabriel Krichinsky
Joan Plowright	Eva Krichinsky
Aidan Quinn	Jules Kaye,K & K Employee,David as a Baby
Elizabeth Perkins	Ann Kaye
Kevin Pollak	Izzy Kirk
Israel Rubinek	Nathan Krichinsky,Faye Krichinsky
Eve Gordon	Dottie Kirk
Elijah Wood	Michael Kaye,Michael as an Adult
Grant Gelt	Teddy Kirk
Mindy Loren Isenstein	Mindy Kirk
Shifra Lerer	Nellie Krichinsky
Mina Bern	Alice Krichinsky
Neil Kirk	Herbie
Ronald Guttman	Simka
Rachel Aviva	Elka
Sylvia Weinberg	Mrs. Parkes
Ralph Tabakin	Principal Dunn
Steve Aronson	Moving Man
Miles A. Perman	Gas Attendant
Beatrice Yoffe	Nursing Home Receptionist
Brian Sher	Country Club Page
Frank Tamburo	Mugger
Patrick Flynn	Fire Chief
Herb Levinson	Rabbi at Funeral
Kevin Blum	Young Jules
Alvin Myerovich	The Father
Moishe Rosenfeld	William as a Young Man
Michael Krauss	Sam as a Young Man
Michael David Edelstein	Gabriel as a Young Man
Bernard Hiller	Hymie as a Young Man
Brian Shait	Nathan as a Young Man
Dawne Hindle	Eva as a Young Woman
Christine Mosere	Nellie as a Young Woman
Anna Bergman	Alice as a Young Woman
Mary Lechter	Faye as a Young Woman
Barbara Morris	Mollie as a Young Woman
Christopher James Lekas	Sam, Michael's Son
David Thornhill	David (age 8 months)
Jordan Young	David (age 10)
Tammy Walker	Camera Girl
David Long	TV Commercial Director
Brenda Alford	Night Club Singer
Thomas Joy	Country Club Singer
James A. Zemarel	Supper Club Singer
Jesse Adelman	Miscellaneous Family Member
Ellen Chenoweth	Actor
Irv Stein	Miscellaneous Family Member
Pat Flynn	Fire Chief
Judy Bach	Miscellaneous Family Member
Alisa Bernstein	Miscellaneous Family Member
Eva Cohen	Miscellaneous Family Member
Josh Lessner	Miscellaneous Family Member
Samantha Shenk	Miscellaneous Family Member
Patty Sherman	Miscellaneous Family Member
Thelma Weiner	Miscellaneous Family Member
Robert Zalkind	Miscellaneous Family Member
Randy Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Barry Levinson

Thomas R. Burman	Special Effects
Bari Dreiband-Burman	Special Effects
Allen L. Hall	Special Effects
Mark Johnson	Producer
Joel Kramer	Stunts
Barry Levinson	Producer,Director,Screenwriter
Ellen Chenoweth	Casting
Willie Burton	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

The final installment of director Barry Levinson's Baltimore Trilogy (which also includes Diner and Tin Men) is a richly sentimental, unapologetically nostalgic film that celebrates the virtues of family life. Avalon begins with the July 4th arrival on American shores of Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky (beautifully portrayed as an older man by Armin Mueller-Stahl), who settles in Baltimore with his brothers and raises a family. The bulk of the film unfolds in the late '40s, concentrating on Sam's son Jules (Aidan Quinn), daughter-in-law Ann (Elizabeth Perkins), and grandson Michael (Elijah Wood). Levinson traces various transitions within the Krichinsky family and conveys his appreciation of the anxieties that afflicted middle-class people in nascent suburbia. His affection for place and period comes through in every scene, and, in addition to assembling a strong ensemble cast (including Kevin Pollak, Lou Jacobi, and Joan Plowright), he suffuses the entire film with warm, gentle humor. The emotion in Avalon is always heartfelt, never contrived for cheap effect; this film shows Levinson at his most vulnerable and introspective, and as such rates a special place in his oeuvre. The DVD includes production notes and talent files.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Barry Levinson's sentimental family saga is an engaging and affecting film, particularly in its sense of comic detail, but is less persuasive in its overall design. The film covers half a century in the life of the Krichinsky's, a family of Russian immigrants, from their arrival in Baltimore in 1914. Levinson, who began his life in show business and a stand-up comic before becoming a comedy writer, and eventually a director, reminds one of the kind of genial uncle who dissolves tense moments at family gatherings with a joke. This often applies to his approach to the film, in which members of the extended Krichinsky family are more likely to become entangled in some comic byplay involving the movie Stagecoach (1939), than to have a real fight. And even their squabbles are more a ritualized form of communication than evidence of real hostility. Given the personal nature of the material, one understands the director's desire to put a golden halo over these characters, but one guesses that the reality of the lives of these struggling immigrants was more tension-filled than he's willing to acknowledge. Levinson's ambivalence about the arrival of television, and a sense of the double-edged nature of assimilation are touched on by the director rather than explored.Armin Mueller-Stahl is superb as the focal character of the immigrant generation, one who reflects the melancholy of the diaspora of the family from the city to the suburbs after WWII. Aidan Quinn as his ambitious son Jules, and Elizabeth Perkins as Jules' wife Anne are also excellent as a couple trying to live their lives while coping with the demands of an older generation.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello