sumanta6 Reviews

The Shop on Main Street (1965)

One of the Best I have seen

[10/10 · 26 August 2006]

I have a collection of over 2000 foreign films, but this film one of the best films I possess and holds a special place in my heart. Not only is it memorable for the story or for it's symbolisms but also for some of the best acting in world cinema you will ever see.

Set in 1942 Czechoslovakia, Tono (Jozef Kroner) is appointed the "Aryan Controller" of a Jewish owned business that has been seized from an elderly Jewish woman, Rozalie Lautmann (Ida Kaminska). Because of her senility, the woman is oblivious to events taking place around her. She believes Tono to be her newly appointed "assistant". Conflict and tension for Tono appears from several different sources, from his venal wife, from his corrupt brother-in-law, from his growing affection and respect for the widow Lautmann, from the larger, external forces that threaten to overwhelm his newly arrived arrangement that, for the first time, offers him money, status, and respect. Tono is forced to decide between two equally unpalatable choices : To be a Jew loving Aryan or send Mrs. Lautmann to the concentration camp. That dilemma is played out primarily as an alcohol monologue, as Tono gradually breaks down under the stress of a decision he doesn't want to make.

The frailties of human psyche and dilemma of being selfless or selfish has been beautifully explored in this film. The director tells this multi-layered story with the help of two wonderful actors. This kind of performance by the two central protagonists are rarely seen in world cinema. The drunken Tono and bumbling Rozalie will be etched in my memory forever. Don't miss this gem.

Pather Panchali (1955)

One of the best

[10/10 · 9 September 2005]

The film is certainly a masterpiece. The film is overwhelmingly real and the key element in the movie is the maintenance of this realism. The characters are so true to the ethnic rural-sixties Indian existence that one is compelled to wonder if the film was captured through surveillance cameras.

Pather Panchali, released in 1955, is the first film of director Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy. The film is a serene and beautiful depiction of a little boy's childhood in the Indian countryside in the 1950s.The film was made on a shoestring budget by a hitherto unknown director. Apart from a seventy-year-old woman who made her name in the 1930s on the stage, none of the cast had ever acted before and many had been plucked from the Indian rurality. In contrast Satyajit Ray completed the trilogy on the behest of the Indian Prime Minister, pointing to the film's cultural impact.

It's a quiet, simple tale, centering on the life of a small family living in a rural village in Bengal. The father, Harihar (Kanu Bannerjee), is a priest and poet who cares more about his writing and spiritual welfare than obtaining wages he is owed. The mother, Sarbojaya (Karuna Bannerjee), worries that her husband's financial laxity will leave her without enough food for her two children, daughter Durga (Uma Das Gupta) and son Apu (Subir Bannerjee). Harihar's family often lives on the edge of poverty, coping with the unkind taunts of their neighbors, the burden of caring for an aging aunt (Chunibala Devi), and the terrible aftermath of a natural catastrophe.

Most of what transpires is shown through the eyes of either Sarbojaya or Durga, and, as a result, we identify most closely with these two. Harihar is absent for more than half of the movie, and, before the penultimate scene, Apu is a mere witness to events, rather than a participant. Until the closing moments, we don't get a sense of the young boy as a fully formed individual, since he's always in someone else's shadow.

The simple story of the Bengali family will definitely stay in my heart for a long time to come. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?........