Food, Family, and Thanks
Two Films that get to the heart of Thanksgiving
By Alan Herrmann
MOVIE CRITIC
A few nights ago, my wife and I were walking home from one of our favorite restaurants, Ristorante Renato, when two movies popped into my head: Avalon and Big Night. The films are quite different, but both remind me of Renato’s old-world charm and share common themes of food, family, and giving thanks. I offer a look at these movies not as standard Thanksgiving fare about Pilgrims or large families sitting around a dinner feasting on turkey, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving – centered around community and sharing food with those we love.
Director Barry Levinson made Avalon in 1990 as part of his Baltimore trilogy – films loosely based on his experiences growing up in post-war Baltimore. The other films are Diner and Tin Men and are well worth watching. Levinson does a marvelous job of capturing time and place in these films. Avalon, his most autobiographical of the three, is multi-generational and spans several decades. The impressive cast includes Armin Mueller-Stahl, Aiden Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Joan Plowright, Lou Jacobi, and Elijah Woods.
The story follows Sam Krichinsky, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his brothers and their families as they grow and struggle to realize the American dream in a rowhouse in Avalon, a neighborhood in Baltimore. Here they remain for several years as children, and eventually grandchildren are born. When Sam arrives in Baltimore on July 4th,1914, the city is decorated with flags and streamers, and fireworks light up the sky. He is unaware this is a holiday celebration and believes this is what daily life in America is always like. The Krichinsky brothers embrace this American celebration along with other American holidays, most notably Thanksgiving. The brothers, their wives, children, and grandchildren gather around a long series of connected tables and joke about why they have to kill a turkey to give thanks. These immigrants love their traditional culture but also embrace the ways of their adopted country.
Although the movie spans roughly sixty years, the bulk of the story takes place in an era of post-war prosperity. Sam believes his son, Jules, should have a respectable career in sales as opposed to physical work, a common outlook shared by immigrant parents of the era. Jules and his cousin, Izzy, embark on this journey and rise from being door-to-door salesmen to selling the hottest new marvel: the television. Eventually, they open their own discount department store and move away from Avalon to the suburbs where there is more room and yards for kids to play.
Over time, familial and cultural challenges begin to crack apart the once sturdy Krichinsky clan. Jules’s wife, Ann, who represents a modern wife of the time, butts heads with her mother-in-law, Eva, who is stubborn and traditional, almost to the point of superstition. She doesn’t drive, nor will she ride in a car with a woman driver. Ann pleads with Jules to encourage his parents to get their own place. Sam and his brothers eventually break apart, initially over a Thanksgiving turkey being cut before brother Gabriel – who is always late for the dinner – arrives. In a pivotal scene, Gabriel leaves in a huff, feeling insulted and declaring that Sam’s move to the suburbs with Jules’s family is too far away from Avalon. Sam and Eva move back to Avalon after Jules’s family grows. The breakup of the extended family is tragic. Sam and Eva miss their grandson Michael, who they have helped raise from birth, and the feeling is mutual. The cousins, Izzy and Jules, lose their uninsured discount store in a fire and go their separate ways.
In the middle of all this strife is that modern marvel, the television, which becomes more intrusive and dominant in the characters’ lives. Initially, the television is watched after dinner in the living room. Then we see the family rushing out from the kitchen with dinner plates to catch a favorite show. Soon TV trays are seen making this transition even easier, followed by portable TVs in bedrooms. Finally, we see a very old Sam living in a nursing home remarking to his adult grandson about the things that no longer exist from his past, while his great-grandson watches a Thanksgiving parade on a portable tv. Avalon ends on a somber but honest note.
Big Night, directed in 1996 by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, is a very different movie than Avalon. It’s a smaller, more intimate film that explores the themes of family, immigration, and cultural and social change in a different fashion. Whereas Avalon covers several decades and a very large extended family, Big Night zeros in on one night in 1957 on the Jersey shore and two immigrant brothers from Italy. The ensemble cast features Stanle Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Ian Holm, Isabella Rossellini, Minnie Driver, and Allison Janney.
Primo (Shalhoub) and Secondo (Tucci) own a restaurant that offers authentic Italian food prepared by Primo, while Secondo manages the business side of things. It’s a charming, clean, unfussy place that offers top notch, beautifully prepared food. The problem is the restaurant draws very few customers because their food is unfamiliar. Customers want spaghetti and meatballs not seafood risotto, but Primo won’t compromise his vision of true Italian cuisine. Even though his brother is a magnificent chef, Secondo knows they’re going broke and feels they should be giving the customers what they want. Their stiffest competition is a glitzy, large, neon-lighted restaurant-nightclub owned by Pascal (Holm) a flashy, Cadillac-driving player who has found his American dream by mixing a little bit of Italy and a large and loud splash of the US. In his place we see plate after plate of spaghetti and meatballs go to tables where customers down martinis while listening to Italian American pop tunes.
In desperation, Secondo visits Pascal in hopes of acquiring a loan, but Pascal turns him down, offering another option: Secondo and Primo will make an incredible meal for his friend and famous singer, Louis Prima, which will draw wonderful press and business for the brothers.
The brothers go all out, spending what they don’t have to create a stunning, multi-course meal with the legendary dish Timpano as the centerpiece. Friends and neighbors, who are a surrogate extended family to the brothers, show up for the meal. The night doesn’t go as planned, but everyone savors the unforgettable food, comradery, and the experience the brothers lovingly create – one that would rival many Thanksgiving dinners.
Tucci and Shalhoub give authentic portrayals of brothers who argue and fight, but whose love and devotion to each other is clear, although their future is not. Their final scene together, nearly free of dialogue, is so honest and pure it’s a masterpiece of filmmaking.
I would like to end this by commending Ristorante Renato for the wonderful free meals they provide every Thanksgiving for folks in need. Their hard work and generosity exemplify what Thanksgiving truly means.
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