Claudio Carvalho
In 1942, in a small town in Czechoslovakia, the poor carpenter Tony Brtko (Jozef Króner) is assigned "Aryanizator" of a small shop on the main street by his fascist brother-in-law Mark Kolkotsky (Frantisek Zvarík). His greedy wife Evelyn (Hana Slivková) is seduced with the promise of fortune, but Tony finds that the store owned by the deaf and senile seventy year-old widow Rozalie Lautmann (Ida Kaminska) is bankrupted and the old lady is financially supported by the Jewish community that promises a salary to him to help her. Tony befriends Ms, Lautmann and helps her in the store and repairs her furniture, and lures his wife with his salary. When the Jews are expelled from the town by the fascist, Tony decides to help the old lady. "Obchod na Korze" is one of those movies that make you laugh and cry. The tragic-comic and heartbreaking story of a flawed Aryan man and a senile Jewish widow is very well developed and the viewer is able to understand the despair of the lead character absolutely powerless against the powers that be, in a village where everybody knows each other. His state of mind in the end with the whole situation associated to the booze drives him to his ultimate decision. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "A Pequena Loja da Rua Principal" ("The Little Shop of the Main Street")
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.
imdbfriend
Obchod na korze is a story of a simple man in a complex times. The time I am talking about is the WW II period when Hitler was exterminating Jews from Europe. This movie although not dealing much with the scenes from Jews struggle depicts a powerful story which shows us how some European civilians were with Hitler and how they helped him in his mission. Again this movie doesn't show all this as a main plot but indirectly like how the villagers submissively throws Jews out, takes their stores, and how they talk. This all gives us a little peak at the psyche of the people at that time but the movie doesn't overbear itself with such psychic and doesn't turn into a melodramatic, tissue grabber one, but depicts one man who is simple, not with any complications and who is not Jew takes into a Jewish old woman's store but with the help of others keep the old lady working in the store by not letting other anti-Jew know about the situation. I won't reveal much here but the movie is brilliant, and the actors are really good, especially the main male lead and the old woman in the store. This is not entertainer as the time it deals with is by no means entertaining but only horrifying and yet director, writers did their best in making this movie with a light humorous nature of the characters especially in their depiction of the Tono and Lautman. So you will laugh at times, feel bad at times, think about that period most of the time and then eventually you might cry at the end. This movie is that good. Watch it for your senses.
azfad
This is one of the most emotionally powerful movies i have ever seen and I have no idea why isn't more well-known as it it should be. For me it carries more of a punch than 'Schindler's List' and in terms of anti-war films it is possibly the finest i have seen. I love the fact that the main character is just an everyday, little man just trying to get by who, over the course of the film gets provoked into action and not a 'hero' by any typical standards. The film has a down-to-earth tragic beauty that just really captures one's attention and the whole movie is utterly gripping and captivating.Amazing performances by the two main characters and a climax that just left me speechless - i can't recommend it highly enough. One of my top 10 movies ever made.
