Shop on Main Street [Criterion Collection]

Director: Jan Kadar, Elmar Klos Jan Kadar

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:	[monaural, Dolby Digital]
Language:	English
Time:	2:05:00
Sales rank:	20,570

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

Ida Kaminska	Rozalie Lautmann
Josef Kroner	Tono Brtko,Actor
Frantisek Zvarik	Marcus Kolkotsky
Hana Slivkova	Evelina Brtko
Helena Zvarikov	Rose Kolkotsky
Martin Holly	Imro Kuchar
Martin Gregory	Katz
Adam Matejka	Piti Baci
Mikulas Ladizinsky	Marian Peter
Eugen Senaj	Blau
Frantisek Papp	Andoric
Gita Misurova	Andoricova
Luise Grossova	Eliasova
Alojz Kramar	Balko Baci
Tibor Vadas	Tobacconist
Helena Zvarikova	Rose Kolkocka
Elmar Klos	Actor
Zdenek Liska	Composer

Technical Credits

Jan Kadar

Elmar Klos

Ladilsav Grossman

Jan Kadar	Director,Screenwriter
Elmar Klos	Director,Screenwriter
Jaromir Lukas	Producer
Jordan Balurov	Producer
Ladilsav Grossman	Screenwriter
Ladislav Hanus	Producer

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.