The Shop on Main Street

A good friend recommended The Shop on Main Street to me, and I'll have to thank him. It was another one of those bland-looking Criterions I'd always passed up at stores, so I probably wouldn't ever had watched it. Thankfully, it really exceeded my expectations.

It's the story of a Czech man who gets appointed Aryan Controller of a local button shop, run by an elderly Jewish widow. He thinks that he'll be making all kinds of money and it'll be a cinch, but he quickly finds he's been given a meaningless position in a struggling business run by a bossy Jewish woman. He pretends to the woman that he's a worker underneath her, and hides her from the truth.

One of the biggest questions in the film, is why does he deceive her in this way? Is it because he's good at heart, and wishes to protect her? Or, is it because he's greedy and wants to keep things running smoothly so he'll make more money? Or, perhaps, maybe he's just lazy and this is the easiest way out? Throughout the film, he's torn between complicity or empathy, and it's really a great story to watch unfold.

I was thinking that deceit plays a large part in films about the Nazi Occupation. In this film, of course, but in Schindler's List, Empire of the Sun and Life is Beautiful. Probably because the Jews were so deceived at that time. It's still harrowing to think about, to this day.

The film is well-made, and unfolds at a leisurely pace, with plenty of well-defined characters that are easy to relate to. The strange violin score is very odd, but it actually lends itself well to the film, in the same way that the zither score did for Carol Reed's The Third Man. The camerawork is great as well, as there's plenty of information in every frame to keep your attention. A great film, worthy of the Criterion label.