Back Projection
Today’s film is “The Shop around the corner” * Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch * Genre: Romantic comedy * Duration: 99 minutes * Release Date: 12 January 1940 (USA), 12 August 1945 (France)

Summary:

Based on the play by Miklós László,The story takes place in Budapest specifically in a shop in the late thirties. Mr.Matuschek is the boss of this shop and has co workers named Klara Novak and Alfred Kralik. Those two co-workers hate each other. Nevertheless they write letters to each other without knowing that their correspondent is their co worker. In this relationship, they both fall in love but they keep being evil against one another while they are working. When Alfred Kralik realizes this reality, he tries to come closer to Klara Novak, to seduce her and to make her love him.
Critics:
The shop around the corner by Lubitsch was filmed in 1939 and was realized in 1940. The two main character ( Klara Novak and Alfred Kralik ) are played by James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. Those two actors are both famous and have won many Oscars in their carrier, mostly James Stewart who is an emblematic actor in the cinema. Thus, with Lubitsch as a director, James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as actors, we aren’t surprised with the success of this film, which became a classic of the cinema.
The success of the film is based on the balance between

love feelings and humor, which does not come from our two lovers but from their environment, particularly from Pirovitch, a co-worker who suffers constantly humiliations, and also from the ridiculous of some other characters. This humor is about the danger of unemployment, because everybody were threaten to lose their job.
The love message is made to open our eyes about the reality without forgetting our dreams.

Our opinion:
Finally, this movie is not a boring classic dark and white movie like every youth could think about this kind of movie. It’s an entertaining movie in which we can