The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze)
Directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
Written by Ladislav Grosman, Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
1965/Czechoslovakia
Filmove studio Barrandov
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Antonin Brtko: I’m your Aryan and you’re my Jewess . . . understand?[/box]
I didn’t expect so much whimsy in the sad story of the fates of an elderly Jewish shop owner and her hapless Aryan handler. The whole thing works amazingly well.
Tono Brtko (Josef Kroner) is a humble uneducated carpenter. Czechoslovakia has been occupied. He has a greedy wife who is the sister of a member of what looks to be the equivalent of the Slovak Fascist Party SS. Tono is apolitical but hates his brother-in-law.
Laws have been made that Jews can no longer own businesses. All Jewish businesses are assigned an “Aryan Controller”. Through his family connections Josef is given the sewing notions shop owned by an adorable, very hard-of-hearing old lady named Rozalia (Ida Kaminska). The idea is evidently that when the Jews are deported the controller will take over completely. Plus, Josef’s wife firmly believes that all Jews have a secret stash of gold buried on the premises.
Problem is the old lady is a charity case. She thinks that Josef has come to assist her and is very kind to him. Josef can do nothing to save either of them.
Czechs can’t seem to help telling even the most tragic tale with an off-kilter world view and wit that can only be described as charming. According to me, this movie is practically perfect. It is my final film for 1965 and will go immediately on to my Top Ten Favorite New-to-Me Films of 2018 list, coming soon.
The Shop on Main Street won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Picture. Ida Kaminska was nominated for Best Actress.
