The Shop Around The Corner - Two (Faces) Into One
Quick Thoughts: The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
Two employees at a small general store can't stand one another.
A pleasant exercise in romantic tension, The Shop Around The Corner manages to supply us an ending within a finger's reach yet pulls it on a string for almost 100 minutes. We then see a man send and receive letters to and from a mysterious someone whilst a new clerk is employed in his workplace. The two cannot stand one another, but trope implies a romantic fate for the two. Somewhat surprisingly, with each tease and trick, each misdirecting moment, there comes not frustration; there remains a patient warmth and comfort in a strong faith - rather than an assumption based upon predictability - in an inevitable happy ending for two characters who don't know how they are to be. Underlying this patient experience comes the knowledge that there is an unknown face to all individuals - one that is hidden in romance and found in love. The Shop Around The Corner sees love and romance project each face through the two lives of an individual in numerous relationships--the meeting of the professional and private so often facilitating such a thing. We then see employees lie to their bosses to keep them happy; bosses turn a blind eye to their wife's secret gongs on to keep their relationship stable. Alas, the most rewarding expression of just this comes in the romance - yet the less amiable experiences of self-subjugation and betrayal are pivotal. These strands coalesce to create a touching orchestration of many two-truths that eventually form one. With The Shop Around The Corner, a sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet, often comedic, sense of fate forces an integration of personas. And thus with the ending comes an all too pleasant feeling of unity a little deeper than a classical romantic formula would have you think.
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Creed - Where Is The Melodrama?
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End Of The Week Shorts #85
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amazon.com/author/danielslack
Two employees at a small general store can't stand one another.
A pleasant exercise in romantic tension, The Shop Around The Corner manages to supply us an ending within a finger's reach yet pulls it on a string for almost 100 minutes. We then see a man send and receive letters to and from a mysterious someone whilst a new clerk is employed in his workplace. The two cannot stand one another, but trope implies a romantic fate for the two. Somewhat surprisingly, with each tease and trick, each misdirecting moment, there comes not frustration; there remains a patient warmth and comfort in a strong faith - rather than an assumption based upon predictability - in an inevitable happy ending for two characters who don't know how they are to be. Underlying this patient experience comes the knowledge that there is an unknown face to all individuals - one that is hidden in romance and found in love. The Shop Around The Corner sees love and romance project each face through the two lives of an individual in numerous relationships--the meeting of the professional and private so often facilitating such a thing. We then see employees lie to their bosses to keep them happy; bosses turn a blind eye to their wife's secret gongs on to keep their relationship stable. Alas, the most rewarding expression of just this comes in the romance - yet the less amiable experiences of self-subjugation and betrayal are pivotal. These strands coalesce to create a touching orchestration of many two-truths that eventually form one. With The Shop Around The Corner, a sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet, often comedic, sense of fate forces an integration of personas. And thus with the ending comes an all too pleasant feeling of unity a little deeper than a classical romantic formula would have you think.
Previous post:
Creed - Where Is The Melodrama?
Next post:
End Of The Week Shorts #85
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
