The Shop on Main Street (1965)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Shop on Main Street (1965) – J. Kadár and E. Klos

A horror film or a tragedy or both – what else can you say about a film that examines the effects of fascism (in this case instituted by the provincial Nazi supporters in Slovakia) on two people (seen as a microcosm).  Tono Brtko (Jozef Kroner) is an underemployed carpenter who is granted the role of “Aryan Controller” by his brother-in-law, a local official, and told to take over the titular button shop run by elderly widow Mrs. Lautmann (Ida Kaminska) who is Jewish.  We can see that Tono is suspicious of the fascists and reluctant to be a part of their movement but his wife is overjoyed at the prospects of a change in their fortunes.  Some of their interactions (and a drunken night with the brother-in-law) are played for comedy but it is an unsettling sort of humour and the dissonant musical accompaniment heard in these early scenes strikes a tone of warning.  When Tono does head out to take over Mrs. Lautmann’s store, he finds that his instinct (spurred on by a local friend of the Jews) is to simply accommodate her, as she is elderly, hard of hearing and seemingly unaware at all of the changes in her political fortune.  And since the coterie of Jewish business owners offers to pay him a weekly wage (since Lautmann’s long bankrupt store wouldn’t anyway), Tono is content.  However, this arrangement does not last long and the film darkens considerably as the fascists begin to round up the Jews.  Their friend is captured and beaten.  Tono is afraid and vacillates between wanting to protect Mrs. Lautmann and thinking of turning her in.  Directors Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos keep the focus on the individuals in question but it is clear that their reactions are meant to stand for those of the larger populace, who may find themselves as either the beneficiaries or victims of fascism, with complicated motivations and emotions and even more difficult relations.  Although it seems obvious where the moral high ground sits, The Shop on Main Street argues humanistically that the actual predicament of confronting this plague is more fraught than one can anticipate.  True bravery may be required and not everyone is made of such strong stuff.  In the end, the film is a lament for humanity (and a brutal shock to the system).  Stay alert.