MUBI

The funny and tragic performances, the camera work, the story, the dream sequences; all great reasons to see this film. Another foreign picture that doesn’t really have anyone involved who became very famous outside of Czechoslovakia. No famous autuers, and yet I thought it was brilliant. It leaves a mark!

Jozef Kroner as Tony Brtko holds the movie together. He’s drunk much of the time and finds a boisterous voice in this condition. When he’s sober, he’s a pushover, too scared, too kind to do what is expected of him as an Aryan. He hates his brother-in-law who lives a wealthy life as a Nazi officer. He is annoyed by his nagging wife. The Nazis are just beginning their plan to clear all the Jews out of this small Czech town. Tony’s brother-in-law gives him the advice that a Jew-lover is the only thing worse than a Jew, and tells him to stay away from one known acquaintance named Mr. Kuchar who is a friend to Jews. Tony needs Mr. Kuchar’s help too much to give up his friendship though. Tony gets assigned to take over a shop, which carries sewing supplies, from an elderly Jewish woman. Ida Kaminska plays the widow Mrs. Lautmann. She is set in her ways and hard of hearing, but serves her few customers well. She continually claims not to understand that Tony as an Aryan is supposed to take her shop away from her because she is a Jew. While this is sometimes genuine, she’s such a cheerful old lady that I got the definite impression that she was playing dumb, that she was just playing with Tony at times. The “I don’t understand, I don’t understand.” is more existential, more metaphysical. The Nazis have a wooden pyramid monument built in the square that many of the Czechs call the Tower of Babel. It also reminded me a bit of the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This pyramid doesn’t look very dangerous, but it conveys a sense of impending doom. Pictures of the young Mr. and Mrs. Lautmann from a happier time begin to haunt Tony. The dream sequences are bright, washed out, pure images of a symbolic main street where Tony becomes Mr. Lautmann and all the current political problems are gone. The Shop on Main Street realistically portrays daily life in this place and time and slowly builds some powerful suspense in the final scenes.