THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET

Czechoslovakia, 1965, 128 minutes, Black and white.
Ida Kaminska, Jozef Kroner, Hana Slivkova, Martin Holly.
Directed by Jan Kadar and Einar Klos.

The Shop on Main Street is a fine and powerful Czech film, made in the heyday of Czech drama in the mid-'60s with directors like Jan Kadar, Jiri Menzel, Ivan Passer and Milos Forman. Passar, Forman and Kadar were to leave for the United States and Canada after the Russian invasion of 1968. Menzel was to stay in Czechoslovakia and make films.

The Shop on Main Street won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1965 and Ida Kaminska was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. The film re-creates a Czech village in 1942 with the German occupation. While it focuses on a small group of characters, it shows us a microcosm of the war and occupation. It particularly focuses on an ordinary carpenter, his arrogant and ambitious wife, his collaborating brother-in-law. He is nominated to be an 'aryaniser' of a Jewish shop run by an elderly lady - and thus profit for himself during the war. it also focuses on the round-up of the Jews from the village to go to the concentration camps. This provides a moral crisis for the hero. The ending is quite pessimistic - with some surrealistic hope.

An arresting and interesting perspective on World War Two, The film was viewed with some suspicion by the communist authorities - and its seeming to exalt individual conscience over authority.

1. The impact of the film, its acclaim, Oscar-winning?

2. The Czech film industry of the mid-'60s: skills in film-making, perspective on World War Two, on contemporary Czechoslovakia? The later career of the director after 1968?

3. Black and white photography, the atmosphere of the town, the storks at the opening and the rooves of the town, the use of the birds as a symbol of freedom for the village? The detail of the village, period? Musical score?

4. The introduction to Tono: with the cart, waiting for the train to go by, fixing the trough, kindly to the dog, his nagging wife, his angers with her, his despising of his brother-in-law, the meal and the food appropriated by the Nazis, the drinking, his despising the situation? The gift of the shop, his going as an aryaniser and his intending to do the job? His first meeting with Mrs Lautner, the irony of her not hearing, her responses to him, his sympathy for her, beginning to help her, the shop itself, his opening it, discovering about the Sabbath, seeing Mrs Lautner at prayer? The discussions with Kuchar and the system for supporting the Jewish shop-owners, the barber and the group? His fixing the shop, mending the chairs, the young boy helping him, the selling of the buttons? The bond with Mrs Lautner, her giving him the husband's suit, feeding him, listening to her stories, looking at the photos? The changes in the town? The Nazi arch and notice, the lights and the celebrations of its opening? His wife and her greed, wanting Mrs Lautner's wealth? His final anger with her and hitting her? His decision to help Mrs Lautner, the list of the Jews being arrested, the discussion with Kuchar and the barber and their being taken as 'white Jews'? His bewilderment and fear, beginning to drink, sleeping and dreaming about saving Mrs Lautner? His being frightened, chasing her around the house, shouting at her misunderstandings, his so frightening her that she died? His decision to hang himself? His paradise dream with Mrs Lautner?

5. His wife, bossy, nagging, anti-Semitic, her admiration for her brother-in-law, her greed for the shop and its wealth, her husband hitting her?

6. Markus and his fascist authority, appropriating the food, privileges, giving the shop to his brother-in-law?

7. Kuchar and the white Jews, their sympathy for the Jews, the fund to support the shops? Anti-Semitic? feeling in the village? Its Christian background - and the glimpse of clergy and nuns? Kuchar and the protection of the shops? The round-up, the Nazi propaganda, the betrayals to the authorities? The Jews and the lists, the round-up for the concentration camps?

8. The portrait of the town, the birds, the ordinary way of life during the credits - the pre-war peace? The Nazis and the fascist symbols? Attempts at co-existence? The demand for stances.

9. The film as a war film, as a human document? As a Czech film? The perspective of Czechoslovakia 1964?