Rent The Shop on the High Street (1965)
4.0 of 5 from 116 ratings
2h 0min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Small-town Slovakia 1942. Nazi concentration camp deportations have begun. Tono, a poor carpenter, is appointed 'Aryan controller' of the elderly and frail Jewish widow Rozalia's shop. Believing Tono is her new assistant, the two develop a friendship in which he maintains that illusion to try and protect her from the encroaching Nazi terror. Wonderfully written and performed, and with an extraordinary Zdenek Liska score, the film becomes a devastating examination of how minor compromises can finally lead to complicity in the horrors of tyranny.
- Actors:
- Ida Kaminska, Jozef Króner, Hana Slivková, Martin Hollý, Adam Matejka, Frantisek Zvarík, Mikulás Ladizinský, Martin Gregor, Alojz Kramar, Gita Misurová, Frantisek Papp, Helena Zvaríková, Tibor Vadas, Eugen Senaj, Luise Grossová, Juraj Herz
- Directors:
- Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos
- Producers:
- Milos Broz, Jaromír Lukás
- Writers:
- Ladislav Grosman, Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos
- Aka:
- Obchod na korze
- Studio:
- Second Run
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Cinema Paradiso's Euro 24 Film Festival, Films & TV by topic, Top 10 Czech Films, Top Films
- Countries:
- Czechoslovakia
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 15/08/2016
- Run Time:
- 125 minutes
- Languages:
- Slovakian LPCM Mono, Yiddish LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- Presented from a brand new High Definition transfer prepared by the Czech National Film Archive
- New, exclusive and expansive filmed appreciation by writer, editor and film historian Michael Brooke
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Reviews (2) of The Shop on the High Street
The most moving film I have ever seen - The Shop on the High Street review by OP
I can't remember being as involved in a film as this one. I tend to steer clear of holocaust films as they distress me too much, but what this film does, somehow, is rejoice in our ultimate humanity and goodness. I wanted to see the film all over again no sooner had I finished it; its depiction of the evil unleased by Nazi ideology needs to be seen.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Guilt Through Inaction - The Shop on the High Street review by griggs
The Shop on Main Street is a Slovak film front he Czech-Slovak New Wave that shows how catastrophe starts with small choices. In 1942, a quiet carpenter becomes the state-appointed “Aryan controller” of a button shop owned by an elderly Jewish widow. He tries to do right; the system presses him to do wrong.
Ida Kaminska brings the widow to life with warmth and wary dignity, and the camera lingers on her every flicker of doubt. Directors Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos keep the style plain: steady shots, dry humour, the odd surreal touch. No graphic shocks—just mounting moral pressure. The ending lands like a dropped stone and keeps echoing.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.