Closely Watched Trains
Encyclopedia
Closely Watched Trains is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel
Jirí Menzel
Jiří Menzel is a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography...

. It was released in the United Kingdom as Closely Observed Trains. It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this effort was the alleged privations suffered by...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The film is based on a story by Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.- Life and work :...

. It was produced by Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios is a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.Several of the movies filmed there won Academy Awards...

 and filmed on location in Central Bohemia. It won the 1967 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

.

Plot

Germany is losing at all her fronts at the end of the Second World War. Young Miloš Hrma is engaged as an unpaid employee in a small railway station. The stationmaster, an enthusiastic pigeon-breeder, has a kind wife, but is envious of the train dispatcher Hubička's success with women. Miloš holds a platonic love for young conductor Máša. The experienced Hubička tries to explain to him the "matters of love" and discovers that Miloš is a virgin.

The idyll of the railway station is disturbed by the arrival of the councillor, Zednicek, a Nazi supporter. Máša spends the night with Miloš, but he finds no success and, the next day, he attempts suicide. He is saved, and the doctor explains to him that ejaculatio praecox
Premature ejaculation
Premature ejaculation is a condition in which a man ejaculates earlier than he or his partner would like him to. Premature ejaculation is also known as rapid ejaculation, rapid climax, premature climax, or early ejaculation....

 is normal at Miloš's age. The doctor recommends that Miloš seek the assistance of an experienced woman. During the nightshift, Hubička flirts with the telegraphist, Zdenička, and imprints her buttocks with the office's rubber stamps. Her mother complains to Hubička's superiors.

The scandal prevents the stationmaster from becoming inspector. The Germans are nervous, since their trains are attacked and blown up by the partisans. An attack is also planned for this station. Young artiste Viktoria Freie delivers a bomb to the station. At Hubička's request, Viktoria also helps Miloš to "resolve" his problem with virginity. The encouraged Miloš sets up the booby-trap himself. The endeavor is successful, but the young man also dies during the course of events.

Cast

  • Václav Neckář as Miloš Hrma
  • Vlastimil Brodský
    Vlastimil Brodský
    Vlastimil Brodský was a respected Czech actor. He appeared in over 90 films, and is considered a key figure in the postwar development of Czech cinema....

     as councilor Zednicek
  • Jitka Bendová as conductor Máša
  • Josef Somr
    Josef Somr
    Josef Somr is a Czech actor. He starred in the film Poslední propadne peklu under director Ludvík Ráža in 1982.-Selected filmography:* Valley of the Bees * Což takhle dát si špenát...

     as train dispatcher Hubička
  • Libuše Havelková as stationmaster's wife
  • Vladimír Valenta as stationmaster
  • Jitka Zelenohorská as telegraphist
  • Naďa Urbánková as Viktoria Freie
  • Jiří Menzel
    Jirí Menzel
    Jiří Menzel is a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography...

     as doctor Brabec

Production

Based on Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.- Life and work :...

's 1965 novel Closely Watched Trains, Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios is a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.Several of the movies filmed there won Academy Awards...

 first offered the film project to three of its experienced directors, who all declined, before offering it to Jiří Menzel
Jirí Menzel
Jiří Menzel is a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography...

 as his feature-film debut. Menzel's first choice for the main role, Miloš, was Vladimír Pucholt, who however was occupied filming Jiří Krejčík's Svatba jako řemen. At one point Menzel considered playing the role himself, but concluded he was too old. Eventually Menzel's wife discovered Václav Neckář who was cast. Menzel did also cast himself in the film, in the role of the doctor. Filming began in late February and lasted until the end of April 1966. Locations were used in and around the station building in Loděnice
Loděnice (Beroun District)
Loděnice is a municipality and village in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. -References:*This article was initially translated from the Czech Wikipedia....

.

Critical response

Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...

 of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 called Closely Watched Trains "as expert and moving in its way as was Jan Kadar
Ján Kadár
Ján Kadár was a Slovak film writer and director. As a filmmaker, he worked in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Canada. Most of his films were directed in tandem with Elmar Klos. The two became best known for their Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street...

's and Elmar Klos
Elmar Klos
Elmar Klos was a Czechoslovakian film director who collaborated for 17 years with Ján Kadár and with him won the 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with the film The Shop on Main Street.-References:...

's The Shop on Main Street
The Shop on Main Street
The Shop on Main Street is a 1965 Czechoslovak film about the Aryanization programme during World War II in the Slovak State....

 or Milos Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...

's Loves of a Blonde
Loves of a Blonde
Loves of a Blonde is a 1965 Czechoslovakian film directed by Miloš Forman. It is also known under the alternate title of A Blonde in Love.-Plot:...

", two other recent films from Czechoslovakia. Crowther wrote: "What it appears Mr. Menzel is aiming at all through his film is just a wonderfully sly, sardonic picture of the embarrassments of a youth coming of age in a peculiarly innocent yet worldly provincial environment. ... The charm of his film is in the quietness and slyness of his earthy comedy, the wonderful finesse of understatements, the wise and humorous understanding of primal sex. And it is in the brilliance with which he counterpoints the casual affairs of his country characters with the realness, the urgency and significance of those passing trains." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

s reviewer wrote: "The 28-year-old Jiri Menzel registers a remarkable directorial debut. His sense for witty situations is as impressive as his adroit handling of the players. A special word of praise must go to Bohumil Krabal, the creator of the literary original; the many amusing gags and imaginative situations are primarily his. The cast is composed of wonderful types down the line."

Accolades

The film won several international awards:
  • The 1967 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
    Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
    The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

  • The Grand Prize at the 1966 Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival
    International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg
    Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival is an annual film festival held jointly by the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. The festival was established in 1952. In Mannheim there are six cinema centres and 19 single cinemas.The festival presents arthouse films of...

  • A nomination for the 1968 BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best Soundtrack
  • A nomination for the 1968 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
  • A nomination for the 1967 Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film
  • Won the Golden Wolf at the 1966 Bucharest Film Festival
    Bucharest Film Festival
    The Bucharest Film Festival is a defunct film festival active between 1948 and 1968 in the city of Bucharest founded by Nicolae Barbu. Originally known as the Bucharest Festival of Socialist Film due to its part funding by the Communist Party, the festival specialized in films of the Eastern Bloc...


See also


External links

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