CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS/Ostře sledované vlaky (1966)

Thursday / 11th May 2006 / 20:00

Czechoslovakia / 1966 / 89 minutes / director: Jiri Menzel / screenplay: Bohumil Hrabal, Jiri Menzel / cinematography: Jaromir Sofr / editing: Jirina Lukesova / music: Jiri Sust / cast: Vaclav Neckar (Milos Hrma), Jitka Bendova (Masa), Vladimir Valenta (station head), Libuse Havelkova (his wife), Josef Somr (train dispatcher Hubicka) /

Closely Observed Trains is a study of a specific microcosm, a remote railway station where two battles take place at the same time – that of growing up into manhood (the erotic experience of Milos Hrma) and of national liberation (the national resistance motif).

Menzel and his cameraman Jaromir Sofr visualized the story as a process of double initiation of the young Hrma. Small but precisely chosen details reveal the lives of several characters working in the station. The gently erotic atmosphere is framed by sexual adventures of the experienced dispatcher Hubicka, who becomes Milos´s teacher in professional as well as personal matters. The local sleepy order, represented by the ambitious pidgeon lover and station head, contrasts with the absurd war clamour (the Nazi councellor Zednicek).

Closely Observed Trains are not only an impressionistic study of an initiation process, but a celebration of the medium of film itself. Narrative sequences intertwine with sophisticated editing details from the sleepy station. Menzel also uses the station machinery as a metaphor of the awakening of young desire and passion. The tragedy of a personal failure and a suicide attempt is set in the realistic and sensitive depiction of life in a small Czech town.

Pavel Bednařík