Closely Observed Trains

Screening: 27 October 2005
Venue - Maria Ritchie Room.
Attendance is restricted to 40 members only and tickets will be issued upon application.

Czechoslovakia 1966
Directed by Jiri Menzel
Leading players ~ Václav Neckár, Josef Somr, Vladimír Valenta.
88 minutes (subtitles)

Synopsis

It is teenage Milos' (Neckár) first day at work. He has signed on as an apprentice dispatcher at his sleepy, local railway station since this job seems to require little effort - none of his family are hard workers - and he likes the uniform. Signalman Hubicka (Somr) shows Milos the ropes but Hubicka is actually far more interested in young ladies than trains and his particular penchant is rubber-stamping girls' buttocks.

Milos is agog at these shenanigans since he has a problem. Try as he might, and despite having a willing girlfriend, somehow he can't lose his virginity. He begins to see sexual connotations in everything, no matter how mundane: a train blowing steam, a cook stuffing a goose, a woman on horseback. Suicidal, he consults a doctor (Menzel) who advises finding a mature woman to teach him. Milos promptly starts shyly asking every suitable woman he meets for help, including the stationmaster's wife. Eventually he is successful and "becomes a man".

Meanwhile, trains full of German soldiers and munitions pass through the station as World War II rages all over Europe. Czech Resistance fighters plan to blow up one such consignment and Milos joins them.

Unlike most films depicting the Occupation, almost from the first frame of this movie we are chuckling. We learn of Milos' grandfather and his attempt to stop the German tanks by using hypnosis, we meet the hilarious Hubicka dishing out aphrodisiacal advice, then there is the guano-covered stationmaster exiting backwards along the railway lines and the idiotic official who writes unintentionally funny reports portraying German withdrawals as clever strategic manoeuvres. The main focus seems to be the station where life goes on mostly unaffected by the War. We see everyone through Milos' unsophisticated eyes. He is the innocent abroad who knows little of life beyond his home town and cares even less. However, this is, of course, an illusion. Nazi oppression has Czechoslovakia in its grip and Milos will have to confront it eventually. Sexual manhood is seen to correspond with responsibility, political responsibility in this case.

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Film facts

The film's title (originally "Ostre sledované vlaky") is derived from the designation the Germans gave the trains which carried their supplies of munitions and troops throughout occupied Europe during the Second World War, indicating that they should be given priority passage and receive the highest level of security.

Ever thought of trying to stop the tanks of an invading army by hypnotism? Milos' grandfather reckoned it was a good idea.

Closely Observed Trains was Jiri Menzel's first, and best, feature film: he was 28.

Winner of the 1968 Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film.

'Closely Observed Trains is many things: an intimate sex comedy, a bawdy piece of period slapstick ... a charming ragbag of comic set pieces, hilarious dialogue and saucy delight.' - Peter Wild, MovieMail

Closely Observed Trains is considered one of the finest of the Czech New Wave films, a movement that that ended with the Soviet invasion of August 1968.

Closely Observed Trains is based on the book by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal.

Menzel currently has his 24th film as director in pre-production, I Served the King of England, also based on a novel by Bohumil Hrabal. They have collaborated on half a dozen films.

Menzel is also a film actor (over 45 roles) and writer (14 movies).

'A beautiful, haunting little picture.' - Philip French, The Observer.