Avalon (1990)

Armin Mueller-Stahl: Sam Krichinsky

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sam Krichinsky : If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better.

• Sam Krichinsky : Who's this? Who's this Jules Kaye?

  Jules Kaye : That's me, Dad. I changed my name.

  Izzy Kirk : Me too, I changed mine to Kirk. It's easier to say that Krichinsky. Kirk, it's better.

  Sam Krichinsky : Who said names are supposed to be easy to say? What are you, a candy bar? You got a name! Krichinsky! It's a name! Kaye. Kirk. Two cousins, different names. How can this be? How can this be a family? When the father's called Sam Krichinsky, his son is called Jules Kaye and his first cousin is called Izzy Kirk. This is a family, God damn it! Krichinsky is the name of the family!

• [first lines] 

  Sam Krichinsky : I came to America in 1914 - by way of Philadelphia. That's where I got off the boat. And then I came to Baltimore. It was the most beautiful place you ever seen in your life. There were lights everywhere! What lights they had! It was a celebration of lights! I thought they were for me, Sam, who was in America. Sam was in America! I didn't know what holiday it was, but there were lights. And I walked under them. The sky exploded, people cheered, there were fireworks! What a welcome it was, what a welcome!

• [repeated line] 

  Sam Krichinsky : I came to America in 1914...

• Sam Krichinsky : Jules, if you stop remembering, you forget.

• Michael Kaye : I don't want you to ever leave!

  Sam Krichinsky : One way or another, we all have to leave.

• Sam Krichinsky : This English, it's very difficult. I never realized how difficult English is. "May" or "can." You can, but you may not. We've come a long way. In the old days, if you had to pee, you peed on a tree. With no "may" or "can." That's progress for you.

• Sam Krichinsky : We're getting farther and farther away from Avalon. I think I'm getting too old for change.

• Sam Krichinsky : It's not an argument, it's dinner talk.

• Gabriel Krichinsky : Oh, boy, could he drink! What was that stuff called he always used to drink?

  Sam Krichinsky : Slivovitz. Slivovitz! He used to call it, "Block and fall." You have one drink of that, you walk one block, and you fall!

• Sam Krichinsky : A couple of years ago, I went to see the house on Avalon. It was gone. Not just the house, but the whole neighborhood. I went to see the ballroom, where me and my brother used to play. The whole place, gone. Not just that. But the grocery store where we used to shop, gone. All gone. I went to see where Eva lived off Poplar Street. It isn't there. Not even the street. It isn't there. Not even the street. And then I went to see the nightclub I used to have. And thank God, it was there, because for a minute, I thought I never was.

• Sam Krichinsky : If I knew things would no longer be here, I would have tried to have remembered better.

• Sam Krichinsky : What was the movie we saw with the stagecoach? A very good movie.

  Hymie Krichinsky : Stagecoach.

  Sam Krichinsky : The movie had a stagecoach.

  Hymie Krichinsky : Stagecoach.

  Sam Krichinsky : Very active movie. John Wayne, he was an outlaw but was not an outlaw. What was the movie called with the stagecoach?

  Hymie Krichinsky : Stagecoach.

  Sam Krichinsky : That's what I'm saying with the stagecoach.

  Hymie Krichinsky : Stagecoach.

  Sam Krichinsky : Stagecoach?

• Sam Krichinsky : On the weekend, we made music. What music it was! We liked American music. We were very popular ourselves. One night I looked across the floor and I saw this young, lovely girl. I wasn't handsome and I didn't have a beautiful body. But when I touched a woman they fell in love with me.

• Sam Krichinsky : Keep your nose clean.

• Sam Krichinsky : I found the man who knew the name Krichinsky. He was a little man with big shoes. I'll never forget him. He had such big shoes! They were brand new, beautiful shoes. He told me this was how he made his living. He would break in shoes for the wealthy. Stuff them with newspaper and walk in them. I said, "What a country is this. What a country." The wealthy didn't even have to break in their own shoes.

• Sam Krichinsky : Where is that marriage certificate? Let me see that marriage certificate. Let me see, let me see. I don't want any hanky panky going on in my house.

• Sam Krichinsky : We walked and walked and the skies would light up and explode in a celebration. And then we came to Avalon.

• Sam Krichinsky : You're not supposed to name him after the living.

• Eva Krichinsky : Homes? It's too far for homes. Got to be a pioneer, to live out here. You can't get here with a streetcar.

  Sam Krichinsky : They can build homes, they can put more streetcar tracks down.

• Ann Kaye : He'll be there! I told you! He said, he wants to take some golf lessons and see how it goes.

  Eva Krichinsky : Golf? He's going to play golf?

  Sam Krichinsky : That's what I said when I heard. A working person doesn't play golf. It's for people with sweaters and a cap.

  Eva Krichinsky : Where does he get such crazy ideas?

• Sam Krichinsky : Oh, that's a good drink! You'll have your own place. You'll be an American, like us!

• Nathan Krichinsky : When Father Schulman was alive, we sat in the meeting. The meeting finished. Then we left. It was hot, it was cold, it was snow, it was rain. We sat and we had a meeting. If we don't want to meet because it's hot let's not meet. Do not meet.

  Sam Krichinsky : No one said not to meet.

  Hymie Krichinsky : Nobody said not to meet.