MovieChat Forums > The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Discussion > A few problems I have with the movie

A few problems I have with the movie

posted 14 years ago by MichaelMartinDeSapio
14 replies | jump to latest

It gives me no pleasure to write this, because I know this film is widely regarded as having an absolute Mozartian perfection to it. And don't misunderstand, I like this movie very much. But there are a couple things which bother me about it. It seems there is not enough buildup to Alfred and Klara's relationship from the start. It's as if they meet, then fastforward several months and they're suddenly standing outside of the shop bickering. What happened in the intervening time? Why did they start not liking each other in the first place? Why the huge time jump? Whenever I see the movie, it feels as if a chunk was left out. And the final falling-in-love of Alfred and Klara is not convincing to me either. They never really reconciled their differences or found anything in common. I think it would have helped if we actually heard the contents of their letters in more detail. Alfred refers to Klara's high ideals and such, but we're not given any evidence of this, or the "cultural subjects" that they supposedly discussed in the letter. Thus, the central love story of the movie fell flat for me.

The other thing is that in a few moments there seem to be continuity problems. Like when a character says something, then a cut to someone else, then a cut back to the first character, but they have a different expression or posture.

Comments?

[–] gmikal 8 years ago

You don't have to hear every single bit of minutia from every second of every day to understand the story. You keep the parts in the story that contribute to moving the story forward.

And you keep that confined to 90 minutes, or risk losing the size of your audience, as there are carefully carved out chunks of time in which theaters and television place films. If you have a 3 hour movie, the theater would rather play 2 90 minute movies within that time and make twice as much money.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

I think their original :disagreement was over the musical,cigarette boxes.. alfred doesn't want Mr Mutaschek to buy them, but Mutaschek allows himself to be influenced by Klara's opinion. So they end up stuck with a load of boxes they can't sell. I think this sets Alfred against Klara from the start. however, alfred and klara clearly do have a lot in common, because they have been corresponding and have found out a lot about each other.

i have never noticed the continuity errors you mention.