Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Vonia The Shop on Main Street (Czech/Slovak: Obchod na korze) (1965) Director: Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos Watched: May 29, 2018 Rating: 7/10 Loyal dog, kind friends, Greedy wife, quaint Slovak town. They were Tóno's World. Aryan owner, Naive Jewess shopkeeper, Unlikely friendship. Macro look at war, More profound and real Than frontline battles. Affecting acting, Camera as character, Well-timed reveries. Close call then fluke death felt cheap, Moral trap ends bittersweet. Haiku Sonnets are comprised of 4 3-line haiku plus a couplet of either 5 or 7 syllables, adding up to 14 lines, the same number of lines found in a sonnet. (5-7-5, 5-7-5, 5-7-5, 5-7-5, 7-7/5-5).

Boba_Fett1138 Even though there are of course tons of WW II movies out there already, this one still manages to stand out, also with is originality.First off all, because it tells the story from a side we haven't seen really all that often yet in a WW II movie; from the side of the Slovaks. The Slovak Republic was a fascist state during WW II but I believe few people know this from their history classes or any books or documentaries. So it's good and refreshing to see a bit of an unknown side of WW II for a change.But it's also quite refreshing and original in the way it approaches its subject. As weird as it might sound, this is a bit of a light hearted told movie, with some relieving comedy in it at times. A true tragicomedy of the greatest and most effective sort. It ensures that the movie is a 'pleasant' one to watch with its storytelling but at the same time it also doesn't let you forget you are watching a tragic holocaust movie here.But the characters also work out refreshing. It's great to see things progressing from an old and senile Jewish lady's point of view, who's oblivious to all of the dangers and things occurring outside of her small shop.It's truly a skilfully made and great looking movie. The movie perfectly captures the sense and atmosphere of a small average town, with everyday characters living in it. The black & white cinematography really adds a lot and the directing does a great job as well giving the movie lots of pace and to capture all of the emotions, from the view points of the main characters.And the movie does truly has some great characters in it. The earlier mentioned old lady is great but so is the true main character of the movie, played by Jozef Króner. You don't really know were is loyalty truly lies and what he will do once things start to go truly bad. It makes his character, as the overall movie, also quite unpredictable.I really liked the way the story was being told and constructed. This movie was a true pleasure to watch and the fact that its 'foreign', 'old' and in a 'strange language' really shouldn't scare people off. This is a great movie to watch for everybody and also of course about an historically important subject, that luckily doesn't get told too heavily but still not without making an impact as well. 8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

hasosch "Ich Tanze Mit Dir In Den Himmel" has been a famous German Schlager of the 50ies. The dance has here not a choreographic but a metaphysical function: it bridges between life and death, expressing either the resolved joy of having been able to let back the heaviness of earth, or, preferably, as disguising means in front of the nothing sensed as Horror Vacui. In order to show the relevance of this observation for "Obchod Na Korze" (1965, directed by Jan Kadar and honored by a Oscar for Best Foreign Film of the Year), I have to disclose some details that some readers may interpret as spoilers.Slovakia, Rosenau/Rozsnyo (where Peter Lorre alias Laszlo Löwenstein was born), one thousand years Hungarian, since 1920 part of the newly found Cseh-Slowak Republic, 1942. Late like almost everywhere in Eastern Europe, the Nazis invade the Pre-Carpathian lands and hurry to evacuate all Jews in order to transport them to Russia. But here is on Main Street the little Shop of the widow Lautmann, 78 years old, alone, practically without income, profiting from the benefits of the Jewish community. And there is, a little distant, on his farm, the carpenter Brtko who is under pressure of his beautiful, but stupid and in the end brutal wife - and also of the husband of her sister, one of those who have read very early the signs of time and joined the National Socialist Party.Kolchozky is one of those who is charge for the extirpation of Jewishness in Rosenau. And he charges his slightly deficient brother-in-law Brtko as "Arizator" ("Arianizator"), responsible for taking over the little shop of Panie Lautmannova. However, Brtko is a man with his heart on the right spot. Pushed aside himself by society, he feels pity with the old and deaf Mrs. Lautmann as tries everything to save her life. However, one night, when the evacuation of the Jews has become ready, he looses his nerves, when the alphabet of the called-up names approaches the letter "L". In an overreaction, he forces the old woman into a cabinet and wants to deliver himself to the Nazis in order to save the old woman's life, although what await himself is death.But in the same moment, when he opens the door to deliver himself, the troupe starts to march, Mrs. Lautmann has simply been forgotten, and all his panic was in vain. When he hurries back to open the door of the cabinet, he find that Mrs. Lautmann is death, fallen over some furniture in her cabinet, possibly caused by his hasty hiding of her. Becoming aware of what he has done, he sees a hook in the roof, fetches a rope and hangs himself up. The music that starts Stante Pede, leads back to an earlier scene where Mrs. Lautmann is grieving about her deceased husband. The camera does not show the dead body of Brtko, but instead of that, the film becomes purposely overexposed, the door of the shop opens by itself, and in glorious sways out to the street are floating the rejuvenated Rozalia Lautmannova and Tona Brtko, dancing into the light. - All those who have had the pleasure to see R.W. Fassbinder's "Despair. A Trip into the Light" (1978), know: This is not the light of heaven, this is the light of darkness, not the brightly shining Pleroma (to say it in terms of Gnosis), but the light of the Kenoma.

ackstasis 'The Shop on Main Street' is a truly remarkable film, a gentle mix of comedy and tragedy that manages to tug at our heartstrings without ever resorting to unnecessary violence or over-the-top melodrama. It is 1942, and World War Two is in full force. Tono Brtko (Jozef Króner) is a poor Aryan carpenter in the Slovak town of Sabinov. He is somewhat averse to the Nazi occupation and the persecution of the town's Jewish community, though, at the same time, he does not actively speak out against it. He refuses on principle to work at the so-called "tower of Babel" that the Nazis have ordered built to symbolise their glory (denying himself money that he sorely needs), and he detests his wealthy but heartless brother-in-law, who has been placed in charge of the Aryanisation of the town.However, despite his misgivings, when his brother-in-law places him in charge of a Jewish button shop on Main Street (which, by law, he is "entitled to"), Brtko needs the money too badly to refuse. The owner of the shop, the old and senile Mrs. Lautmann (Ida Kaminska), doesn't even realise that there is a war on, and so she naturally assumes that Brtko is here as her assistant. The two – with their own share of comic confrontations – launch into a sort of "odd-couple" relationship, with Brtko becoming fonder of his Jewish co-worker as each day passes.When the Nazis order all Jews to be loaded onto cattle trucks for "transport," Brtko must decide whether to turn Mrs. Lautmann over to the soldiers, or to try and hide her and risk being labeled a "white Jew." Brtko attempts to explain the situation to her, but she discards his words as drunken ramblings. With soldiers threatening to enter the shop at any moment, he decides to forcibly hide Mrs. Lautmann in a closet, though his rough treatment results in her death. A guilt-stricken Brtko subsequently hangs himself, and the two of them – despite both being dead – meet again in a more perfect world, strolling hand-in-hand across a peaceful, brightly-lit town.Few films are more emotionally-powerful than Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos' 'The Shop on Main Street.' The insertion of comedy throughout the film reminds us that, even in the most tragic of situations, there is humour to be found, even if we are laughing through tears. The heartbreaking ending also carries with it a glimmer of hope; hope that, despite the years of adversity, there will be a time when the Jewish community is able to walk through a town without suffering routine persecution.The acting in this film is very good, but both Króner and Kaminska (a popular Polish stage actress) are nothing less than magnificent. Króner effortlessly switches between the Chaplin-esquire comedy of his early interactions with Mrs. Lautmann, and Brtko's fear and confusion in the film's harrowing final act. Kaminska, in an Oscar-nominated role, is delightfully amusing to watch for much of the film, though her understandable confusion and terror when she eventually notices the Nazi occupation is simply heartrending. Fittingly, the pair received a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival for their remarkable acting performances, and the film itself won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Czechoslovakia at the 1966 Academy Awards.