ENTERTAINMENT WE HAVE PLANNED THE PERFECT THEATER WEEKEND GETAWAY! $ 6 9* ..411 ALL THIS FOR ONLY $69 PER COUPLE! 'per couple, per room Some restrictions may apply 'excluding tax & gratutics Oct. 12-Nov. 25: -411 Last of the Red Hot Lovers( Dec. 1st-Dec. 22: Merry Madcap Murders EVERY FRIDAY & SATURDAY! JUST FOR YOU! Your Theater Weekend Getaway begins at the Days Hotel/Southfield Entertainment Center with an early check-in. Enjoy fine dining in The Broadway Grille followed by an entertaining Broadway show in our Performing Arts Center. Top off the evening with dancing in Yesterday's Lounge. Linger the next morning over our sumptuous buffet brunch. Sound like the weekend you have been looking for? Call for reservations today! Dinner for Two Broadway Theater Overnight Stay Buffet Brunch DAYS HOTEL Nine Mile between Southfield & Greenfield Southfield, Michigan Ril<60-.7a 6407 ORCHARD LAKE RD, WEST BLOOMFIELD ORCHARD MALL-ORCHARD LAKE RD & MAPLE 851-6400 N ORIENTAL and CONTINENTAL CUISINE FREE ENTREE WHEN YOU PURCHASE ANOTHER ENTREE EQUAL OR GREATER VALUE MONDAY THRU THURSDAY • Lobster Excluded • Dining Room Only • Not Valid With Any Other coupons 15% Gratuity Added On Total Amount Of Bill Before Discount. Expires 10-25-90 JI\11 YOUR HOST: DAVID LUM `A GOURMET DINING ,EXPERIENCE ON A SHOE STRING BUDGET!" Sandra Silfren, Detroit News Food Critic OPEN 7 DAYS FOR LUNCH & DINNER Beef • Lamb • Veal • Steaks • Fresh Seafood • Chicken • Ribs AN OLD FASHIONED ITALIAN BUFFET EVERY MONDAY NIGHT . . . 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Featuring . . . Polenta, Chicken, Veal, Trippa, Baccala, Caponata & Much More! Reservations Recommended 13 MILE 90 15015 13 Mile Rd., West of Hayes • Warren • 2 9 3 -2 800 Hours: Mon.-Tburs. 11 a.m.-II p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-12 Mid. Sat. 12 noon-12 Mid., Sun. 12 noon-9 p.m. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1990 Dreams And Memories Are Foundation Of 'Avalon' MICHAEL ELKIN Special to The Jewish News G entle dreams and misty memories make for a moving movie about the Jewish im- migrant experience in Avalon. Barry Levinson, the film's director and writer, literal- ly lights up the screen with this memory-swept sen- timental journey to his old hometown, which harbors stories both sweet and sim- ple in their beauty. As Sam Krichinsky (Ar- min Mueller-Stahl) steps onto the sod of his new- found nation, arriving in Philadelphia and then pro- ceeding promptly to Baltimore, the Russian emigre is escorted by a colorguard of fireworks — reds, whites and blues illu- minating his every step. He has arrived in the Baltimore neighborhood of Avalon on Independence Day, and for an immigrant liberated from the shackles of Russian repression and hardship, the holiday seems more a specially planned personal salute and celebra- tion than an annual event. Walking the Baltimore streets, Mr. Krichinsky feels they are more carpet than pavement, plushly lined paths to opportunities de- nied him in his native land. Settling into the Balti- more family business as a wallpaper hanger — he has been brought over by his brothers, each of whom paves the way for the next — Mr. Krichinsky becomes a gentle giant of a patriarch: a patient parent, benevolent husband and, ultimately, beloved grandparent whose tales of the past still mesmerize. As the story starts, Mr. Krichinsky is creating the spell that all good storytellers weave. His grandchildren are gathered at his knee, awaiting his every word of what it was like to arrive in a country where liberty and justice are promised for all. Sam is interrupted by his son, Jules (Aidan Quinn), an agreeable, ambitious young man hoping to claim a piece of American prosperity for his own pocket. Michael Elkin is an entertainment writer for the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. The Krichinsky family enjoys a parade in Avalon The grandchildren, Jules affectionately admonishes his dad, stopping him in mid- reverie, have already heard the story over and over again; it's enough, Jules affec- tionately tells Sam. But, as audiences soon realize, it is a story worth repeating — especially when the one telling the oft-told tale of the immigrant expe- rience is film-maker Levin- son. He reels in his audiences deftly, mixing haimish humor with heartfelt drama. Avalon is Mr. Levinson's paean to his past and an acknowledgement of how assimilation embraces the immigrant eager to make good in a strange land. At 48, Mr. Levinson has pocketed his share of the American dream, garnering acclaim and an Academy Award as director of Rain Man. Mr. Levinson recalls that his grandfather, the inspira- tion for the character played by Mueller-Stahl, was a wonderful storyteller who would recount his days in Mother Russia to a brood of grandchildren who would marvel at his memories. While he claims that Avalon is not truly autobiographical ("A movie is a movie; it's not some kind of document"), Mr. Levinson readily concedes there is a real bond between the Baltimore families on and off the screen. "My upbringing is very close to what is portrayed in the film,"says Mr. Levin- son."Those family circles really did take place," he says of the film's depiction of the hilarious gathering of the clan to plan formal fami- ly outings. And like the kids' antics in Avalon, the young Levinson was not above being some- what of a troublemaker. "My cousin and I used to build model planes and put down glue tracks, which we used to light," Mr. Levinson said. The track would lead to the wooden model plane, which would go up in flames. "We were always warned not to do that," just like Michael, the film character based on the young Levin- son. "We were always told that a real fire could start." As in Avalon, a major fire played a devastating role in Mr. Levinson's background — the family business went up in smoke. "And just like in the film, there was no insurance," Mr. Levinson said a cinematic Avalon, statement about the dissolu- tion of the nuclear family, is a form of insurance for the film-maker, a reminder that one should cherish family ties. It is, in the best terms possible, a professional home movie about the importance of home. "I have two kids, but there are no uncles and aunts wandering through the house like there was when I grew up," Mr. Levinson said. But there were relatives of his wandering the set of Avalon; some were cast in a family funeral scene. When Levinson started to direct them, they would have nothing of it. "They put up their hands and said, `Barry, we were at the real thing. We know how we felt.' " Jewish rites and rituals don't take center stage in indeed, they are Avalon somewhere out of camera range. But Mr. Levinson, who had his bar mitzvah a year late ("I was sick when I was 13"), says Judaism has —