The Shop on Main Street

Josef Kroner Director: Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos,

Overview

Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos' emotionally devastating holocaust drama The Shop on Main Street comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer. The closed-captioned Czech soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Mono. English subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials are limited to the American theatrical trailer. Even without a bevy of extras, this disc represents the usual high-quality work consumers have come to expect from Criterion. Anyone with an interest in foreign films should certainly seek out this excellent DVD.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/18/2001
UPC:	0037429156124
Original Release:	1965
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital, monaural]
Time:	2:05:00
Sales rank:	26,698

Special Features

New digital transfer; U.S. theatrical trailer; New & improved English subtitle translation; Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Josef Kroner	Tono Brtko
Frantisek Zvarik	Marcus Kolkocky
Ida Kaminska	Rosalie Lautmann
Hana Slivkova	Evelina Brtko
Martin Holly	Imro Kuchar
Helena Zvarikova	Rose Kolkocka
Martin Gregory	Katz
Elmar Klos	Actor
Frantisek Papp	Andoric
Mikulas Ladizinsky	Marian Peter
Adam Matejka	Piti Baci
Gita Misurova	Andoricova
Eugen Senaj	Blau
Tibor Vadas	Tobacconist

Technical Credits

Ján Kadár

Elmar Klos

Ladilsav Grossman

Ján Kadár	Director,Screenwriter
Elmar Klos	Director,Screenwriter
Jordan Balurov	Producer
Ladilsav Grossman	Screenwriter
Ladislav Hanus	Producer,Production Manager
Diana Heringova	Editor
Jaromir Janacek	Editor
Zdenek Liska	Score Composer
Jaromir Lukas	Producer
Vladimir Novotny	Cinematographer
Karel Skvor	Art Director

Scene Index

Side #1 --
0. Chapters
1. Titles/Starks [3:47]
2. "On The Eve Of 1942" [4:26]
3. "Fascist Politics" [2:12]
4. "Our Tower Of Babylon" [3:05]
5. In-Laws [3:34]
6. "Our Time Has Come" [2:40]
7. "Ordinance No.31.40" [4:11]
8. "It Shines!" [1:50]
9. "He's A Real Man" [2:15]
10. "Don't Sell On Credit" [2:09]
11. "I'm Your Arisator" [6:10]
12. "A Fish For Sabbath" [3:10]
13. "You'll Be Like My Own Son" [1:51]
14. A Solution [1:31]
15. "And The Keys?" [1:21]
16. "Closed For Inventory" [4:23]
17. "I Look Like Chaplin" [3:52]
18. "Where Did You Get The Hat?" [2:51]
19. "We Sell Everything" [6:33]
20. "Tumba Tumba-Là" [2:34]
21. "Tin Loudspeakers" [3:47]
22. "Mrs.Lautmann's Benefactor" [2:13]
23. "The Lord's Will And Doing" [4:22]
24. "My Boy Danko" [2:38]
25. "A Nice Goose" [1:21]
26. "Back In The Autumn" [4:24]
27. "I'm A Jew-Lover" [2:47]
28. Sabbath Supper [1:30]
29. "A Saint With A Halo" [4:35]
30. "It Was A Terrible Dream" [4:34]
31. "Abeles Hendrick,Abeles Rosas" [6:20]
32. "Our Laws Are Kind" [4:04]
33. "A Pogrom" [8:52]
34. "I Didn't Want..." [3:51]
35. Danko Comes Home [5:57]
36. Color Bars [:20]

Menu

Side #1 --
   Play The Movie
   Subtitles
   Trailer

Editorial Reviews

On its initial release, The Shop on Main Street contained several ingredients that would make it an instant classic: it was a heartfelt drama about the effect of the Holocaust on two humble individuals, and a film made by individuals who were dealing with a totalitarian regime of their own. The film can't help but be affecting, but it has lost some of its luster with the subsequent release of more complex studies of some of the same issues, namely Lacombe, Lucien, The Conformist, and Divided We Fall. And at 125 minutes, this simple story of a peasant who comes to understand belatedly the complicity he shares in the persecution of the Jews in his village, seems over-extended. Tono's fretting in the button shop as the roll of names is called in the town square outside seems to go on forever, and there's a crucial dramatic inconsistency: He should feel relieved when the name of his elderly friend, Rosalie Lautmann, isn't called. However, the film shouldn't be casually dismissed; both lead performers are superb, especially Ida Kaminska as Rosalie, and there is one bravura piece of camerawork, when Tono retreats to the back rooms of the shop and the camera prowls around each room until it "finds" him and he bolts to another room, where the process is repeated.

All Movie Guide - Tom Wiener