I resist any new films on the Holocaust. I mean, what more can be told of this black period of history? I sat through three hours of atrocities in Schindler’s List (1993) and the only thing I learned was that a citizen risked his life to save others. The only other aspect of value in that stark black and white film was the ingenious coloring of the little girl’s red coat, which seemed to trigger the conscious of the protagonist, allowing the viewer to almost read his mind: “What’s going on here? This is just a little girl in a red coat. What did she ever do to anybody?” The Nazis' madness was captured a lot better, with little physical violence, in a film set on much smaller scale: The Shop on Main Street (1965), which I watched last night courtesy of Netflix. Set in a small Czech town, shot on location, it is the story of a poor farmer who is assigned to manage the general store of a sweet, nearly deaf, old Jewish woman. Although no Nazis appear in the film, their evil has crept among much of the populace. It is just the beginning of the outrage. By film’s end the Jews are rounded up and taken away to “work” camps. The film is distinguished by the performances of the two leads, Ida Kaminska, nominated for an Oscar, and Josef Kadner. Kaminska worked largely on the stage, appearing in but nine films, only one other in English, the forgotten The Angel Levine (1970). Kadner worked almost exclusively in Europe. The film was co-directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos, whose other works were completely unfamiliar to me. Ladislav Grosman wrote the wonderful screenplay, which begins as a simple slice of life and gradually evolves to horror. Of course, when watching such fare one inevitably thinks how did and why was this allowed to happen, although it has happened often enough in mankind's checkered history. “Pogrom?” the old woman says, finally realizing what is taking place in her peaceful home town. The look on her face is enough to rip the heart out. And in the end the viewer is not even granted the visceral satisfaction of seeing the Fascist leaders, so proud in their uniforms, get their due. I wanted it to end with them hung in the street, like Mussolini. Then again, they might have gotten away with their crimes. This is a quietly rousing work. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. On a scale of five, four-and-a-half.
As for my own shop, it was the first good sales session of 2013, thanks to my buddy Bad News Billy, who overpaid for eight of the videotapes Marie donated last week. Another gentleman purchased a VHS of the original Frankenstein (1931), and three novels in Russian and Dan Brown's Deception Point also were scooped up. Thanks, folks.
Visit Vic's sites:
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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