When you violate the protocol, the whole family structure begins to collapse.”Īs the years go by in the movie, the extended family plays a smaller and smaller role. “The idea that they would eat before the brother arrived was a sign of disrespect,” Levinson told me recently when I asked him about that scene. Convenience, privacy, and mobility are more important than family loyalty. “Your own flesh and blood! … You cut the turkey?” The pace of life is speeding up. “You cut the turkey without me?” he cries. The big blowup comes over something that seems trivial but isn’t: The eldest of the brothers arrives late to a Thanksgiving dinner to find that the family has begun the meal without him. One leaves for a job in a different state. Some members move to the suburbs for more privacy and space. But as the movie goes along, the extended family begins to split apart. For a while they did everything together, like in the old country. Five brothers came to America from Eastern Europe around the time of World War I and built a wallpaper business. This particular family is the one depicted in Barry Levinson’s 1990 film, Avalon, based on his own childhood in Baltimore. It’s the extended family in all its tangled, loving, exhausting glory. The old men nap on couches, waiting for dessert. Groups of young parents huddle in a hallway, making plans. The young children sit wide-eyed, absorbing family lore and trying to piece together the plotline of the generations.Īfter the meal, there are piles of plates in the sink, squads of children conspiring mischievously in the basement. “What are you talking about? It was May, late May,” says another. “It was cold that day,” one says about some faraway memory. The oldsters start squabbling about whose memory is better. To hear more feature stories, get the Audm iPhone app.
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