''Closely Watched Trains'' ( cs, Ostře sledované vlaky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel and is one of the best-known products of the Czechoslovak New Wave. It was released in the United Kingdom as ''Closely Observed Trains''. It is a

coming-of-age story In genre studies, a coming-of-age story is a genre of literature, theatre, film, and video game that focuses on the growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood, or " coming of age". Coming-of-age stories tend to emphasize dialogue or inter ...

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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The film is based on a 1965 novel by Bohumil Hrabal. It was produced by Barrandov Studios and filmed on location in Central Bohemia. Released outside Czechoslovakia during 1967, it won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968.

Plot

The young Miloš Hrma, who speaks with misplaced pride of his family of misfits and

malingerers Malingering is the fabrication, feigning, or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms designed to achieve a desired outcome, such as relief from duty or work. Malingering is not a medical diagnosis, but may be recorded as a "focus of c ...

, is engaged as a newly-trained

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 territory ...

at a small railway station near the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the

German occupation of Czechoslovakia German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. He admires himself in his new uniform and looks forward, like his prematurely retired

train driver A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

father, to avoiding real work. The sometimes pompous stationmaster is an enthusiastic pigeon-breeder who has a kind wife, but is envious of train dispatcher Hubička's success with women. The

idyll An idyll (, ; from Greek , ''eidullion'', "short poem"; occasionally spelt ''idyl'' in American English) is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the ''Idylls'' (Εἰδύλλια). U ...

of the railway station is periodically disturbed by the arrival of councilor Zedníček, a Nazi collaborator who spouts propaganda at the staff, though he does not influence anyone with it. Miloš is in a budding relationship with the pretty, young conductor Máša. The experienced Hubička presses for details and realizes that Miloš is still a virgin. At her initiative, Máša spends the night with Miloš, but in his youthful excitability he ejaculates prematurely and is unable to perform sexually. The next day, despairing, he attempts suicide, but is saved. A young doctor at the hospital explains to Miloš that ''ejaculatio praecox'' is normal at his age, recommending that Miloš "think of something else", such as football, and seek out an experienced woman to help him through his first sexual experience. During the nightshift, Hubička flirts with the young telegraphist, Zdenička, and imprints her thighs and buttocks with the office's rubber stamps. Her mother sees the stamps and complains to Hubička's superiors. The Germans and their collaborators are on edge, since their trains and railroad tracks are being attacked by partisans. A glamorous resistance agent, code-named Viktoria Freie, delivers a time bomb to Hubička for use in blowing up a large ammunition train. At Hubička's request, the "experienced" Viktoria also helps Miloš to resolve his sexual problem. The next day, at the crucial moment when the ammunition train is approaching the station, Hubička is caught up in a farcical disciplinary hearing, overseen by Zedníček, over his rubber-stamping of Zdenička's backside. In Hubička's place, Miloš, liberated from his former passivity by his experience with Viktoria, takes the time bomb and drops it onto the train from a semaphore gantry, which extends transversely above the tracks. A machine-gunner on the train, spotting Miloš, sprays him with bullets, and his body falls onto the train. Zedníček winds up the disciplinary 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 high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inc ...

Hames, Peter. ''The Czechoslovak New Wave''. Second Edition, 2005, London and New York, Wallflower Press.). The stationmaster is despondent because the scandal with Hubička and Zdenička seems to have frustrated his ambition of being promoted to inspector. Then a huge series of explosions happens just around a bend in the track as the train is destroyed by the bomb. Hubička, unaware of what has happened to Miloš, laughs to express his joy at this blow to the Nazi occupiers. Máša, who has been waiting to speak with Miloš, picks up his uniform cap, which has wound up at her feet, blown by the huge winds from the blast.

Cast

* Václav Neckář as Miloš Hrma * Josef Somr as train dispatcher Hubička * Vlastimil Brodský as councilor Zedníček * Vladimír Valenta as stationmaster Lanska * Jitka Bendová as conductor Máša * Jitka Zelenohorská as telegraphist Zdenička * Naďa Urbánková as Viktoria Freie * Libuše Havelková as Lanska's wife * Milada Ježková as Zdenička's mother * Jiří Menzel as Doctor Brabec

Production

The film is based on a 1965 novel of the same name by the noted Czech author Bohumil Hrabal, whose work Jiří Menzel 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 release ...

'' (1965). Barrandov Studios first offered this project to the more experienced directors Evald Schorm and Věra Chytilová (''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 Václav Neckář. 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'' ( cs, Skřivánci na niti) 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 vari ...

'' (made in 1969 but not released until 1990), '' Cutting It Short'' (1981), '' The Snowdrop Festival'' (1984), and ''

I Served the King of England ''I Served the King of England'' ( cs, Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále) is a novel by the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. The story is set in Prague in the 1940s, during the Nazi occupation and early communism, and follows a young man who alterna ...

'' (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 his ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called ''Closely Watched Trains'' "as expert and moving in its way as was Jan Kadár's and Elmar Klos's '' The Shop on Main Street'' or Milos Forman's ''

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

''," 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''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, 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 Czechoslovak New Wave, 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 Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel '' The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War'', an unfinished collection of farcical in ...

's '' The Good Soldier Švejk'', a fictional

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

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.

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 (german: Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the cit ...

* A nomination for the 1968

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

s 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 The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

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''
an essay by Richard Schickel at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

''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