''Closely Watched Trains'' (') is a 1966 Czechoslovakian New Wave

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

film directed by

Jiří Menzel Jiří Menzel () (23 February 1938 – 5 September 2020) was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films ...

and is one of the best-known films of the

Czechoslovak New Wave The Czechoslovak New Wave (also Czech/Slovak New Wave) is a term used for the Czechoslovak filmmakers who started making films in the 1960s. The directors commonly included are Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Jan Švankmajer, Ivan Passer, Pave ...

. It was released in the United Kingdom as ''Closely Observed Trains''. It is a story about a young man working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The film is based on a 1965 novella by

Bohumil Hrabal Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech Republic, Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Early life Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then ...

. It was produced by

Barrandov Studios Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Barrandov has made several major Hollywood productions, including ''Mission: Impossible (film), ...

and filmed on location in Central Bohemia. Released outside Czechoslovakia during 1967, it received widespread acclaim and won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the

40th Academy Awards The 40th Academy Awards were held on April 10, 1968, to honor film achievements of 1967. Originally scheduled for April 8, the awards were postponed to two days later due to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Bob H ...

in 1968. Nowadays the movie is assessed as one of the finest works of the Czech New Cinema.

Plot

The young Miloš Hrma, who comes from a family of misfits and malingerers, becomes an apprentice

train dispatcher A train dispatcher (US), rail traffic controller (Canada), train controller (Australia), train service controller (Singapore) or signaller (UK), is employed by a railroad to direct and facilitate the movement of trains over an assigned territ ...

at a small railway station during the

German occupation of Czechoslovakia German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

near the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Lanska, the middle-aged, balding stationmaster, is an enthusiastic pigeon-breeder who has a kind wife, but is envious of train dispatcher Hubička's success with women. The railway station is periodically visited by Councillor Zedníček, a Nazi collaborator who spouts optimistic propaganda at the staff, despite the German retreat on all fronts. Miloš is in a budding relationship with the pretty young conductor Máša. Hubička presses for details, including how she is in bed, but the couple have only progressed to kissing, and Miloš is still a virgin. She invites Miloš to spend the night with her at her uncle's place, a photography studio. Máša is eager for intimacy, but Miloš is very uncomfortable with the situation—the uncle is awake in the next room, and the connecting door will not completely close—and ejaculates prematurely. Angered, Máša gets up and sleeps elsewhere. The next day, he slits his wrists in a bathtub at a brothel, but is saved. A young doctor at the hospital explains to Miloš that ''ejaculatio praecox'' is normal at his age, recommending that he "think of something else", such as football, and seek out an experienced woman to help him through his first sexual experience. During the night shift, Hubička flirts with the young telegraphist, Zdenička, and imprints her thighs and buttocks with the office's rubber stamps, before becoming intimate with her. The next morning, her mother sees the stamp marks and complains to Hubička's superiors. Meanwhile, Miloš seeks the help of nearly everyone around the station, without much success. When he tries Hubička, the older man confides to him that he and other

partisans Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Itali ...

are planning to destroy a large ammunition train as it passes the station the next morning. He instructs a willing Miloš to signal the train to slow down, and he will drop a bomb onto the train from a semaphore gantry. That night, an attractive resistance agent, code-named Viktoria Freie, delivers the time bomb. Apparently Hubička has prearranged for Viktoria to spend the night with Miloš. They have sex, and Miloš gains confidence in himself. The next day, as the ammunition train is only minutes away from the station, trouble strikes. Hubička is trapped in a disciplinary hearing, overseen by Zedníček, over his antics with Zdenička. Miloš takes the bomb, climbs the gantry and drops the bomb onto the roof of a train car. However, he is spotted and shot from the train; he falls onto the roof of a car. When Zedníček determines Zdenička was not coerced in any way, he winds up the hearing by dismissing the Czech people as "nothing but laughing hyenas" (a phrase actually employed by the senior Nazi official

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...

Hames, Peter. ''The Czechoslovak New Wave''. Second Edition, 2005, London and New York, Wallflower Press.). Then, just around a bend in the track, the train blows up. Máša, who has been waiting to speak with Miloš, picks up his uniform cap, which has been blown to her feet by the powerful winds from the blast.

Cast

Václav Neckář Václav Neckář (born 23 October 1943 in Prague) is a Czech singer and actor. He is best known for his performance as Miloš Hrma in '' Closely Watched Trains''. Between 1978 and 1979 he cooperated with Polish singer Anna Jantar during their per ...

as Miloš Hrma *

Josef Somr Josef Somr (14 April 1934 – 16 October 2022) was a Czech actor. He was noted for starring in the Oscar-winning 1966 film '' Closely Watched Trains'', as well as in '' The Joke''. Early life Somr was born in Vracov, Czechoslovakia, on 14 Ap ...

as train dispatcher Hubička *

Vlastimil Brodský Vlastimil Brodský (15 December 1920 – 20 April 2002) was a Czech actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films, and is considered a key figure in the postwar development of Czech cinema. One of his best-known roles was as the title charac ...

as councilor Zedníček * Vladimír Valenta as stationmaster Lanska * Jitka Bendová as conductor Máša *

Jitka Zelenohorská Jitka Zelenohorská (born 11 November 1946, in Prague) is a Czech actress. She performed in more than seventy films from 1961 to 1990. In the 1960s, she lived with the singer Waldemar Matuška Waldemar Matuška (; 2 July 1932 – 30 May 2009) ...

as telegraphist Zdenička *

Naďa Urbánková Naďa Urbánková (born Naděžda Balabánová; 30 June 1939 – 3 February 2023) was a Czech singer and actress. Life and career Born in Nová Paka, Urbánková grew up in Borovnička and graduated as a nurse at the Higher Medical School in ...

as Viktoria Freie *

Libuše Havelková Libuše Havelková (11 May 1924 – 6 April 2017) was a Czech actress.Jiří Menzel Jiří Menzel () (23 February 1938 – 5 September 2020) was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films ...

as Doctor Brabec

Production

The film is based on a 1965 novella of the same name by the noted Czech author

, whose work

had previously adapted to make ''The Death of Mr. Balthazar'', his segment of the anthology film of Hrabal stories ''

Pearls of the Deep ''Pearls of the Deep'' () is a 1966 Czechoslovak anthology film directed by Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Evald Schorm, Věra Chytilová and Jaromil Jireš. The five segments are all based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal. The film was released in C ...

'' (1965).

first offered this project to the more experienced directors

Evald Schorm Evald Schorm (15 December 1931 – 14 December 1988) was a Czech film and stage director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 26 films between 1959 and 1988. Schorm was a notable exponent of the Czech New Wave, Czech Film New Wave. Biograph ...

and

Věra Chytilová Věra Chytilová (; 2 February 1929 – 12 March 2014) was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak government in the 1960s, she is best known for her Czech New Wave 1966 film ''S ...

(''Closely Watched Trains'' was the first feature film directed by Menzel), but neither of them saw a way to adapt the book to film.Hames. Menzel and Hrabal worked together closely on the script, making a number of modifications to the novel. Menzel's first choice for the lead role of Miloš was Vladimír Pucholt, but he was occupied filming Jiří Krejčík's ''Svatba jako řemen''. Menzel considered playing the role himself, but he concluded that, at almost 28, he was too old. Fifteen non-professional actors were then tested before the wife of Ladislav Fikar (a poet and publisher) came up with the suggestion of the pop singer

. Menzel has related that he himself only took on the cameo role of the doctor at the last minute, after the actor originally cast failed to show up for shooting. Filming began in late February and lasted until the end of April 1966. Locations were used in and around the station building in Loděnice. The association between Menzel and Hrabal was to continue, with ''

Larks on a String ''Larks on a String'' () is a 1969 Czech film directed by Jiří Menzel. The film was banned by the Czechoslovak government, but was later released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. It tells the stories of various characters consider ...

'' (made in 1969 but not released until 1990), ''

Cutting It Short ''Cutting It Short'' (also released as ''Shortcuts'') ( - literraly: First haircut) is a 1980 in film, 1980 cinema of the Czech Republic, Czechoslovak comedy film directed by Jiří Menzel. It is based on the novel ''Postřižiny'' by Czech write ...

'' (1981), '' The Snowdrop Festival'' (1984), and '' I Served the King of England'' (2006) all being directed by Menzel and based on works by Hrabal.

Reception

The film premiered in Czechoslovakia on 18 November 1966. Release outside Czechoslovakia took place in the following year.

Critical response

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called ''Closely Watched Trains'' "as expert and moving in its way as was

Ján Kadár Ján Kadár (1 April 1918 – 1 June 1979) was a Slovak film writer and director of Jewish heritage. As a filmmaker, he worked in Czechoslovakia, the United States, and Canada. Most of his films were directed in tandem with Elmar Klos. The two b ...

's and

Elmar Klos Elmar Klos (26 January 1910 – 19 July 1993) was a Czech film director. He collaborated for 17 years with his Slovak colleague Ján Kadár and with him won the 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for the film '' The Shop on Main Stree ...

's '' The Shop on Main Street'' or

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech Americans, Czech-American film film director, director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the Uni ...

's ''

Loves of a Blonde ''Loves of a Blonde'' (), also known as ''A Blonde in Love'', is a 1965 Czechoslovak romantic comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman that follows a young woman, Andula, who has a routine job in a shoe factory in provincial Czechoslovakia, an ...

''," two roughly contemporary 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 may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''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 Hrabal Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech Republic, Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Early life Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then ...
, 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.

In his study of the

, Peter Hames places the film in a broader context, connecting it to, among other things, the most famous anti-hero of Czech literature,

Jaroslav Hašek Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czechs, Czech writer, Humorism, humorist, Satire, satirist, journalist, Bohemianism, bohemian, first anarchist and then communist, and commissar of the Red Army against the Czechoslovak Legion. He is best k ...

's ''

The Good Soldier Švejk ''The Good Soldier Švejk'' () is an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, published in 1921–1923, about a good-humored, simple-minded, middle-aged man who appears to be enthusiastic to serve Austria-Hungary i ...

'', a fictional

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

soldier whose artful evasion of duty and undermining of authority are sometimes held to epitomize characteristic Czech qualities:

In its attitudes, if not its form, ''Closely Observed Trains'' is the Czech film that comes closest to the humour and satire of ''The Good Soldier Švejk'', not least because it is prepared to include the reality of the war as a necessary aspect of its comic vision. The attack on ideological dogmatism, bureaucracy and anachronistic moral values undoubtedly strikes wider targets than the period of Nazi Occupation. However, it would be wrong to reduce the film to a coded reflection on contemporary Czech society: the attitudes and ideas derive from the same conditions that originally inspired Hašek. Insofar as these conditions recur, under the Nazi Occupation or elsewhere, the response will be the same.

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 20 reviews, with an average score of 7.80/10.

Awards and honors

The film won several international awards: * The

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

, awarded in 1968 for films released in 1967"Closely Watched Trains" Wins Foreign Language Film: 1968 Oscars
/ref> * The Grand Prize at the 1966

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg, the ...

* A nomination for the 1968

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

s for Best Film and Best Soundtrack * A nomination for the 1968

DGA Award The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D. W. Griffith. The statues are made by New York firm, Society Awards. Categ ...

for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures * A nomination for the 1967

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Januar ...

for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Hames, Peter. ''The Czechoslovak New Wave''. Second Edition, 2005, London and New York, Wallflower Press. * Škvorecký J. ''Jiří Menzel and the history of the «Closely watched trains»''. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1982

External links

*
''Closely Watched Trains'' at AllMovie
*
''Closely Watched Trains''
an essay by

Richard Schickel Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for ''Time'' from 1965–2010, and also wrote for '' ...

at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

''Closely Watched Trains'' on Criterion Channel
* {{Authority control 1966 films 1966 comedy-drama films 1960s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 1960s war comedy-drama films Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners Czech coming-of-age comedy-drama films 1960s Czech-language films Czech resistance to Nazi occupation in film Czech war comedy-drama films Czechoslovak black-and-white films Films based on works by Bohumil Hrabal Films directed by Jiří Menzel 1960s German-language films Rail transport films Czech World War II films Czechoslovak World War II films 1960s multilingual films Czech multilingual films Czechoslovak multilingual films German-language Czech films