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For this Special Thursday Cinema Night, first up is The Shop on Main Street (1965), a Slovak WW2 drama set during the fascist occupation of Czechoslovakia, as the Nazi-aligned puppet-state authorities unleash their reign of terror on a small Slovakian town. One humble carpenter unexpectedly receives a windfall for his career when the fash grant him control over a local button shop, along with the title of “Aryan comptroller”. He is, at first, happy to make more money, but uh-oh, turns out all of his new profits come at the expense of the Jewish population, who the fash are now rounding up as the Holocaust reaches its deadliest point. Cue a crisis of conscience. This is the highest-rated Slovak-language film on Letterboxd, and it won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for 1965. It is the best-known and best-regarded work of directors Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos.

After that is Rental Family (2025), a comedy about a family in Japan, led by a washed-up American actor (Brendan Fraser) desperate for work. He lands an unusual gig playing the eponymous “rental family” role, being a fake stand-in family member for clients who need one. Hilarity ensues as the boundary between his real life and his many fake lives begins to blur, amidst his alienation in a foreign country. This is the best-regarded feature film to date of Japanese director Hikari, who also wrote and produced it; he previously worked on the TV series Beef (2023). Great reviews all around, so let’s check it out.

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

https://blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

Doesthedogdie.com links:

CWs for The Shop on the Main Street:

  • Domestic violence.
  • Alcohol abuse.
  • Hanging.
  • Shaving.
  • Suicide.
  • Anxiety attacks.
  • Nazis.
  • Antisemitism.
  • Hate speech.
  • Sad ending.

CWs for Rental Family:

  • Child abandonment.
  • Domestic violence.
  • Slapping of woman.
  • Unconsciousness.
  • Death of parent.
  • Cheating.
  • Natural bodies of water.
  • Incarceration.
  • Hospital scene.
  • Screaming.
  • Profanity.
  • Babies.
  • Discussion of religion.
  • Dementia.
  • Honking horns.
  • Screeching tires.

Links to movies: