The Shop on Main Street (1966) (Criterion Collection)

In World War II Slovakia, an easygoing carpenter, Tono (Jozef Króner) is pressured to move up in the world by his ostentatious wife and fascist brother-in-law. He takes the job of "Aryan comptroller" in a button shop owned by an aging Jewess, Rosalie (Ida Kaminska) who barely seems aware that there is a war unraveling the solidarity of the small town. Tono works as Rosalie's assistant and they develop a touching and sometimes funny friendship. When the deportations to the concentration camps take place, Rosalie is somehow overlooked. Against the warnings of his wife, Tono protects Rosalie from the next roundup, but not without tragic consequences.

Like Jiri Menzel's CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS and Milos Forman's LOVES OF A BLONDE, Kadar's film emerged from a movement of unconventional artistic filmmaking called the Czech New Wave (1963-1968). THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET was the first Czechoslovakian film to win the Best Foreign Film Academy Award has become one of the most acclaimed and cherished films of the 1960s. Kadar mixes documentary and fiction techniques to create a subtle style that is tragically realistic yet softly dreamlike. The capricious Kaminska was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award and Króner gives an impassioned performance that is unforgettable.