Closely Watched Trains (1966) User Reviews (67)

"Do you know what Czechs are? Laughing animals."

[Ham_and_Egger · 9/10 · 23 July 2005]

It's amazing just how many visual sex metaphors director Jirí Menzel managed to cram into 92 minutes, without ever becoming ridiculous or losing the plot. It makes Hitchcock's train going into the tunnel shot from 'North By Northwest' look like the work of a rank amateur.

Ostensibly 'Closely Watched Trains' is the story of Trainee Milos Hrma (Václav Neckár) starting his job at the local train station during the Nazi occupation of what was then Czechoslovakia (only I guess it wasn't, because it was officially absorbed by the Reich). Throughout most of the film the war, complete with what the local Nazi functionary describes as "beautiful tactical withdrawals," is a long way off and Milos has more important matters to attend to. Specifically he's trying to lose his virginity and deal with another problem common to young men everywhere, one which the local doctor advises him to solve by thinking about football during critical moments.

Made in 1966, when some Czechs were clearly already looking ahead to 1968's Prague Spring, the film slyly uses the Nazis as a stand-in for the Soviets. As proof of this, and the Hollywood establishment's anti-Communist bent in the late 60s, 'Closely Watched Trains' won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968. It is, however, imminently deserving of the win on its own merits.

History lessons aside 'Closely Watched Trains' is beautifully shot, well acted, and absurdly hilarious, while still tasting of tragedy. Excellent.

Train Station at the End

[osloj · 9/10 · 9 August 2001]

This film adds a quirky resonance to the history of Neo-Freudian interpretation of human sexual psychology in film, that rivals Bertolucci's "The Conformist".

Gorgeously filmed in black and white, each frame by frame echoes of a past when life was still mired in concealment and innocence.

The story centers around a train station in a Czech, German occupied small town, and an apprentice train watcher, Milos Hrma, who is confused about his place in the world.

He is a young man and is approaching an instance in his life when sexuality is flourishing all around him, and yet he can not comprehend it.

Scattered throughout the film are leitmotifs that represent sex: the train blowing steam, a horse with a woman riding it, a skinless rabbit being fondled by a woman cook, etc.

He is under the tutelage of a train dispatcher who seems a zealot when it comes to seducing women.

Although he notices that the train dispatcher is a sex fiend, he does little to elicit help from him.

The general thought of the males, is that a young man should be bestowed with the foreknowledge and insight at birth. Thus, his inability to perform when his girlfriend Masa is in bed during a bombing attack, causes him great existential crisis and leads to his attempted suicide.

In fact, the war was subliminally to blame for his very impotence.

This isn't a political film, but uses subtle innuendos to trace the history of a young man into adulthood.

Scattered throughout the film are affable characters such as a pigeon-loving, crap covered Train master, a noble, aristocratic woman, a benign, slightly insane, photographer uncle of Masa, and a Nazi ideologue who refuses to believe that the Reich is in ruins.

The sexual metaphors are spread in gusty humorous episodes, such as when the train dispatcher 'stamps' a girl's buttocks in a moment of ecstasy.

In the finale, the boy is finally cured of his 'impotence' by a big bang, I won't give it away, you'll have to see this delightful film.

Recommended for connoisseurs of world cinema.

Unusual use of stamp pads!

[lastliberal · 8/10 · 23 November 2008]

Imagine coming of age in a time when you are surrounded by sexual images. This Academy Award winning film can be the Czechoslovakian version of so many of the Judd Apatow films we see today.

Brilliantly photographed in black and white, it shows Milos (Václav Neckár) trying to become a man. His first opportunity with his girlfriend Masa (Jitka Bendová) ends in disaster and he attempts suicide. His doctor advises him to get a more experienced woman to teach him, so he goes on a quest to find one.

This all takes place during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, so there are many political overtones to the film. It is hilarious as Milos works at a train station where his coworker Hubicka (Josef Somr) doesn't seem to have problems getting action whenever he wants.

He does manage to arrange help for Milos, but tragedy strikes before he is able to use his new found knowledge with his girlfriend.

An excellent picture and a real funny story that manages to avoid the crudity of modern tales of the same sort.

Oh, those randy Czechs!

[DennisLittrell · 10/10 · 31 March 2007]

The "Closely Watched Trains" are those that are carrying supplies to the German army in and through occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. That is why they are closely watched--so that they run on time. But they are also closely watched by the people of Czechoslovakia, especially dispatcher Hubicka (Josef Somr) and his trainee Milos Hrma (Vaclav Neckar) for another reason, which will become apparent as the movie ends.

Not that Milos and Hubicka are especially diligent workers. On the contrary. What Hubicka is especially adept at is seduction of females while Milos is distracted by his worries about becoming a man. He has what must be seen as a problem demanding comic relief (if you will). He has trouble pleasing his girl friend because of premature ejaculation. He is so consumed by this embarrassing failure that he seeks quietus in the warm bath of a bordello. Meanwhile Hubicka is able to please the pretty young telegraphist Virginia Svata (Jitka Zelenohorska) by playing a kind of strip poker with her and rubber stamping her pretty legs and butt much to her delight and to the consternation of her mother when she finds out. The German Councilor Zednicek (Vlastimil Brodsky) who tolerates no hanky-panky when it comes to keeping the trains moving conducts an investigation and comes to the conclusion that Hubicka is guilty of misuse and abuse of the great German language because he stamped German words onto Virginia's body! This is the tone of the film, wryly ironic, irreverent and mildly comedic, employing in a sense a kind of off-center "theater of the absurd" treatment. Director Jiri Menzel, who appears briefly in the film as Dr. Brabec who diagnoses Milos's "affliction," spun this off from a novel by Bohumil Hrabal, but it could easily have come from a novel by Jaroslav Hasek, who wrote the celebrated Czech classic, "The Good Soldier Svejk," so alike in treatment and tone are they, and so very characteristic of the Czech national mind-set vis-a-vis all the horrors of the European wars. Menzel concentrates on the petty affairs of day-to-day peasant life, sex, the raising of pigeons and geese, the boredom of bureaucratic jobs as he works toward the culminating scene in which the heroics seem almost light-hearted and to come about more from happenstance than from careful planning.

Some of the scenes in the movie are absolutely unique in the world of cinema and suggest a kind of cinematic genius. The creepy goose-stuffing (for foie gras pate) scene in which Milos seeks help with his "problem" from an older woman is riotous--or would be riotous if we were not so amazed as what she is doing while talking to him and what it LOOKS like she might be doing! The scene in which Stationmaster Lanska is torn between the prospect of seducing a voluptuous woman and the chance that he might miss supper reminded me of a little boy at play with his mother calling him home for dinner. The final scene in which it looks like Menzel may have employed a wind machine is just so perfectly presented, combining as it does the stark realism of the war and a delicious (but soon to be mixed) personal triumph of the resistance.

This is one of the classic films of all time. But prepare to put aside ordinary viewing habits and to concentrate with an alert mind. The subtleties of Menzel's little masterpiece will be obscured by inattention, preconceptions and faulty expectations. (Or at least that is what they'll tell you at film school.) See this Oscar winner (Best Foreign Film, 1967) for Jiri Menzel who survived oppression and censorship by the Soviets and is still making movies.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

It made me choose my profession

[Pirate · 10/10 · 6 October 1998]

I saw this film at film-school. Ever since, I have rated this film as one of the very best, its beauty, seriousness, sensualism and cinematography. It is all black and white, but so full of life. I am myself a cinematographer today.

Try to watch it.

Lots of chuckles and some original humour

[raymond-15 · 7/10 · 12 January 2004]

Young railway trainee Milos follows in the steps of his forbears all of whom were not particularly devoted to their vocations and found reason to retire early. To become an assistant station master does not excite Milos, but he undertakes the traineeship because he is persuaded that the uniform commands a certain respect. He also decides it will be nice to watch the trains go by.

This rather quirky comedy set on a railway station somewhere in Czechoslovakia during World War 11 ridicules the rules and regulations of the railway system where responsibility is passed down the line to the trainee who pulls the levers but who is not authorised to use the rubber stamps nor to use his hot moist breath to ensure a good print out.

A lot is made of the authorisation stamp in this film and much of the humour revolves about its use. Some of the characters believe that stamping a woman's bottom is going too far and such an act should be brought before the courts. This hilarious situation is typical of the somewhat suggestive humour throughout the film.

Milos knows nothing about the sexual act and gets very depressed. His doctor confides that he should educate himself by finding a mature woman who can help and advise him. Unsmiling Milos finds little success as shyly he asks every woman he meets including the station master's wife to help him. There is a quiet humour in every scene. Milos gains our sympathy even though we feel he needs a bit of a push.

The final scene is so unexpected. Milos will not be saluting the trains any more as they roll by with their German passengers.... I suppose life is like that.

A perfect movie.

[hermanb · 10/10 · 1 April 2004]

Closely Watched Trains is my favorite movie ever. It is 90 minutes of cinematic perfection: funny, sad, exquisitely shot, beautiful to look at (watch it twice, so that the second time around you can focus on Menzel's genius in composing his shots), and insightful--profound, even. Its structure will make any film student drool with envy. The acting is flawless, particularly the performance by Josef Somr as train-dispatcher Hubicka. Please resist any impulse to see it as a "political" film--it is nothing of the sort. It's just a beautiful work of art. Note: Closely Watched Trains won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1967.

What is all the fuss about?

[susand1108 · 6/10 · 10 November 2019]

This won best foreign film? 1966 must not have been a very strong year for foreign cinema. The whole thing is about a naive young man and his quest for his first sexual conquest. That could be funny, but the fact is, it just isn't. It's a drab and hopeless time, and the passionless characters just stumble through it. Attempted suicide - now there's a laugh for you. Even Nazi occupation has been handled comedically, but not here. I did give it a couple of extra stars on my rating because of the cinematography. Other than that, it's not really worth your time.

Stamp of Excellence

[ww_sketcher · 9/10 · 17 August 2005]

Closely Watched Trains is a a film to be watched again and again.

It's a coming-of-age type story that delves into the viewers psyche, young Milos who has some troubles with his girlfriend, seems to have this dwell on his life. And the world around him reacts, from the woman riding a horse to steam coming out of the train, the woman working her baking, and simply the movement of young Milos becoming a man in his own sense.

But this film isn't just a sexual innuendo, smart comedy presides through it all which most anyone can pick up on, a lot of it is sexual but not all. Making it a surprisingly upbeat film throughout, a rarity not just in a War film, but Czech cinema in general. This may make it sound a bit too happy but it definitely isn't. It's still a moving piece that demands repetitive watches.

Recommended for anyone with an interest in classic European cinema. If you are going to start watching Czech films, start with Closely Watched Trains.

Darkly amusing coming of age, Czech style...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 11 November 2007]

I'd heard about this film for years and knew it won the Academy Award in the U.S.A. in 1967 as Best Foreign Film of that year, but only recently did I catch up with it. I won't say it's great--it's a good comedy of the absurd, done in grand style with a wonderful cast of actors doing justice to the sly comedy inherent in every scene.

VACLAV NECKAR is the novice station attendant and JOSEF SOMR is the randy supervisor with his mind on anything but trains, even CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS which might be carrying German ammunition.

The humor is a constant factor in the slowly developed story and you get a sense of how the Czech countrymen felt about the Germans during the early days of WWII. The coming of age aspect is concerned mainly with Neckar's "premature ejaculation" problem--one that he almost commits suicide over--which is a rather strange aspect of a tale meant to be taken as absurdly hilarious.

I'd have to say the film has been over-hyped as "great", although I found it sufficiently entertaining but dull in spots. Photographed in crisp B&W, it's one of the better foreign films of this period but I think the praise has been too extensive for what is essentially a one-note comedy about a boy's obsession with what the doctor calls "a normal occurrence" that is cured--predictably--by a mature woman who understands his problem.

The final explosive scene with the German ammunition train being blown up--and the wind machines blasting away at the station--is a satisfying but odd conclusion to the story for reasons undisclosed lest I spoil your enjoyment of the finale.

Gut Czech...

[poe426 · 10/10 · 17 November 2007]

Without a doubt, one of the greatest "small scale" cinematic stories ever told. Every beautifully-composed shot is a black and white work of art. The performances all around are sound. The direction is superb. Milos (the main character here) is not unlike the pigeons kept by the stationmaster and his wife: he is caged (repressed) and manages, with not some degree of awkwardness, to finally "break free" of his fetters... just in time for World War Two to literally come thundering down the tracks at him. "Everything flies that has wings," the "seduced" girl says, at one point. In the end, Milos finds his manhood in the ultimate release.

A possible happy future destroyed by war

[eabakkum · 7/10 · 19 January 2012]

The film "Watch the train" (Dutch title) tells the story of Milos, a young points-man, in Czlechoslovakia during the German occupation in the Second World War. The film combines a mild humor with a sketch of the Nazi's cruelty and stupidity. Milos starts to work in the railway station of his local village. He is hardly full-grown, and his personality is still fragile. His basic pre-occupation, and a source of self-doubt, is the opposite sex. His sexual performance becomes an existential problem for him, and even induces a suicide attempt, after an unsuccessful intercourse with his girlfriend, a train guard. Eventually the niece of a colleague helps him to overcome his fears. As such the narrative is rather thin. The real charm of the film is in the detail, int the little events, that accompany this main story. The stationmaster, who suffers under his dominant wife. The frivolous colleague of Milos. The apathetic German soldiers, who find comfort in a railway wagon filled with nurses. The photographer, who bursts into a gale of laughter, after his house is demolished by an air raid. And the crooked regional inspector, who is a dedicated but stupid and insensible supporter of Hitler and the army of occupation. In the wake of his successful intercourse, which proves his manhood, Milos sabotages and destroys a train filled with ammunition. Unfortunately this second success in his young life leads at the same time to his own destruction. On a higher level I don't know what to think of this narrative. It is not an invitation to reflect. Neither is it a tale of heroism, or a portrayal of existential emptiness. The events just unfold, as if by accident, and could just as well have taken a different turn. It brings some reminiscences of the Russian film Ballad of a Soldier, which in my opinion is a better appeal to our emotions. Both films probably simply mean to sketch the waste of promising lives as a result of the stupidity of war. It is probably this aspect of the possibilities for a happy future, which shows their Bolshevist background.

Highly over rated Czech New Wave 60's comedy noir

[rboon33455 · 4/10 · 13 September 2009]

This is a highly acclaimed 60's new wave movie that won the Oscar for best foreign language film. It established the reputation of film director, Jiri Menzel, and is considered to be one of the very best Czech films ever made. However, embracing the possibility that this may ruin my status as a reviewer for ever, I believe its undeserved reputation significantly underestimates Czech cinema.

The film has a dreamlike quality which emphasises the bumbling sexual innocence of the main character, the Railway Despatcher's Apprentice,Milo, and which gives the unexpected dramatic ending real force.However, it is only then that the grim reality of the Nazi dominated world in which the film is set is really acknowledged. Milo is also an apprentice in the important matter of life and on one level this is a coming of age film. However, the visual sexual innuendo now seems very obvious and clichéd. None of its cardboard characters are really developed and Closely Observed Trains seems very much like a slow paced version of a British "Carry On" film. Like them it feels very dated. My partner was so bored she walked out half way through it. If you want to see a really good Czech film check out the short but superb,"Most"

Very bitter sweet, a pearl of the Czech new wave movement

[frankde-jong · 8/10 · 19 September 2020]

The reason to watch "Closely watched trains" again was the death of Jiri Menzel in september 2020. Jiri Menzel was part of the Czech new wave in the early '60s, of which Milos Forman was the main protagonist. The films of the directors of this movement were often not explicit political, but implicit they were socially critical nonetheless.

In both "Closely watched trains" and "The Firemen's Ball" (1967, Forman) the comrades are far from model workers. They prefer to be lazy above being tired. This is beautifully illustrated in the beginning scene of "Closely watched trains" in which main character Milos Hrma (Vaclav Neckar) prepares for his first working day on a minor train station, a job he selected because of the expected lack of workload.

In 1966 Menzel was not blamed for the implicit criticism in "Closely watched trains". In the first place the "Spring of Prague" was still going on and in the second place the story was situated during the Second World War and not during Communist domination. The situation had totally changed when "Larks on a string" (1969) was released. This time the "Spring of Prague" was over after the invasion in 1968 and the story was situated after the "liberation" from the Germans. After "Larks on a string" the career of Menzel came to a standstill. Worth mentioning is that both films were based on a novel by Bohumil Hrabal. Menzel liked to adapt books of this author to the screen.

Having not much to do during working hours, there is a lot of flirtation on the workplace. We can see that in "Loves of blonde" (1965, Milos Forman) as well as in "Closely watched trains". This is were the problems for Milos begin, because he suffers from premature ejaculation. This gives rise to performance anxiety towards that nice conductress he has an eye on. During the whole film there are sexual undertones, such as in the scene in which a peasant woman feeds up a goose by massaging his neck.

The combination of war time and coming of age shares "Closely watched trains" with "Lacombe Lucien" (1974, Louis Malle). In "Lacombe Lucien" the boy chooses the part of the Germans and abuses the power he obtained in this way against a Jewish girl. In "Closely watched trains" the boy choose to cooperatie with the resistance to prove that he is a real man. The end of the film is tragic and contrasts strongly with the bittersweet tone of the rest of the movie.

European Film at its Best

[Tumey · 8/10 · 9 January 2007]

From the opening shot of Jiri Menzel's Closely Observed Trains, the viewer knows what will follow. The story of a young man and his life, not to mention a deeply embarrassing problem that he seems to address to every character, captivates one in its simpleness and whimsy. Every shot is beautifully framed, even that not usually considered so; take, as an example, the attempted suicide of our main character, filmed expertly enough to draw comparison to a credit sequence shot of a pigeon captured in mid flight. The acting, too, is flawless; a fantastic performance from leading man Vaclav Neckar is backed up with a solid, supporting and most importantly realistic cast. Overall, a great film, which should be recommended to film experts and casual viewers alike.

A splendid story and a wonderful picture

[vperello · 10 April 2000]

When I saw this film, about twenty years ago, I knew nothing about Bohumil Hrabal, the author of the novel, and Jiri Menzel, the director. Later I knew about the situation that many talented people went through in Czechoslovakia after "The Prague springtime" and the invasion of the country by the soviet tanks in 1968. Now I am a fan of the czech sense of humour but I still remember that evening twenty years ago when I saw what was probably my first czech film and the enormous pleasure that causes me this almost perfect movie.

Closely Observed Trains

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 31 July 2012]

Featured in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, this Czechoslovakian film when I read more about sounded like something that would be interesting to watch, and I remember the distinctive image of the lead character, so I watched hoping for the best. Basically, set during World War II, at the time where Germany were losing to the other countries of the world they were fighting, young Miloš Hrma (Václav Neckár) is employed by a small railway station, but his is not being paid. The stationmaster Max (Vladimír Valenta), who enthusiastically breeds pigeons, is jealous that Hubička (Josef Somr) has so much luck with women, and he meanwhile is trying to help Miloš lose his virginity, specifically with the woman he has attraction for, conductor Máša (Jitka Bendová). Things are disturbed at the railway station when Zednicek (Vlastimil Brodský) the counsellor and Nazi supporter, but Miloš does manage to spend a night with Máša, but it is not a successful, and he tries to commit suicide. Having been saved, a doctor assures him that his premature ejaculation during sexual activity and not is completely normal, and he recommends he should consider losing his virginity to an experienced woman. There is some flirting by Hubička during the night shift with telegraphist Zdenička (Jitka Zelenohorská), and her use the office's rubber stamps to cover her buttocks, and soon after her Mother (Pavla Marsálková) approaches his superiors to complain. Because of this scandal the inspector job is no longer available to the stationmaster, the Germans meanwhile are having their trains blown up and attacked by the occupying army and they are becoming nervous, and the station is threatened by an attack. The bomb is delivered to the station by young artiste/circus performer Victoria Freie (Nada Urbánková), and she is the one requested to help Miloš to lose his virginity, and he seems to set kind of booby trap, but in the end, although he is successful in his pursuit for manhood, he dies during the events. Also starring Alois Vachek as Novak the station's assistant and Ferdinand Kruta as Uncle Noneman. Neckár makes an interesting lead character, you can sort of see him as an early version of Jim from American Pie or something, it is certainly not in the teen comedy kind of field with the wanting to lose virginity plot, but it certainly makes for some amusing scenes, and then of course you have the harsh war moments as well, all together creates a worthwhile Second World War comedy drama. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Film and Best Sound Track, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film. Very good!

A Beautiful Film

[aimless-46 · 8/10 · 12 November 2007]

Note to American viewers: "Closely Watched Trains" (1966) is one of them "fereign films". It has subtitles and is in black and white (actually a strength as it is superb film stock). The setting is German-occupied Czechoslovakia during WWII. The setting and the use of the Czech resistance movement (to the German occupation) as a plot element may confuse Americans; many of who believe that Czechoslovakia was an Axis country or have never given the subject any thought. But just prior to the start of the war, Britain and France sold out Czechoslovakia. They backed out of their treaties and allowed Hitler to break up the country; establishing the German Protectorates of Bohemia and Moravia and annexing the Sudentenland (which had a significant German population).

Also useful in understanding the film was a revisionist trend by European countries in the 1960's to rehabilitate their images; suppressing any record of cooperation/assistance to Germany while proclaiming their resistance to the Nazi agenda. The film is a product of this trend which is why the resistance elements seem rather tenuously inserted into the story.

The film revolves around young Milos Hrma (Vaclav Neckar) who follows his father's example and goes to work for the railroad; becoming an apprentice dispatcher at a rural station. The impressionable Milos becomes fascinated with Hubicka, a veteran train dispatcher who devotes most of his energy to various on-the-job seductions. The second act involves Hubicka's on-going conflict with their superior, the pigeon-raising and feather covered stationmaster.

But "Watched Trains" is really Milos' coming of age story, complete with the requisite line: "is the first time you have been with a woman?" Milos' first time proves a disaster and leads to an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Hubicka has more on his mind than girls. He is a member of the Czech resistance and is planning to destroy a German munitions train when it passes near the station. Unfortunately for Milos, Hubicka's recreational activities are reported to the authorities and he must attend an investigatory hearing inside the station, scheduled for the same time that the ammunition train is expected. For Milos, who has finally demonstrated his manhood in bed, the question is whether he can now demonstrate it my climbing the signal tower and dropping an explosive device onto the train as it passes beneath.

The film goes out with a bang and one is left to decide on the relative merits of the two methods young men have of proving their manhood.

I forgot to mention that the film is actually a comedy. And for that matter the resistance movement stuff is pretty much an irrelevant side story to the coming of age theme. And the female characters are all a little too good.

As tends to happen with good little movies, the plot has very little to do with what the movie is about, and nothing to do with the effect it had on me. And as tends to happen with them "fereign" films there are allegorical elements. The characters are seen from Milos' innocent point of view, a nontraditional hero who is neither heroic nor particularly intelligent. But he does fall in love and that reshapes his destiny.

All in all a very entertaining production. Especially good is Jitka Zelenohorská as a female telegraph operator, who becomes the object of Hubicka's playful attentions.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

delightful young girl who lays down to be rubber stamped up to her bottom

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 22 December 2017]

A very slight film with a certain amount of charm but too weighed down with the gawky and seeming inept young hero. The girls are all fine and surprisingly erotic but apart from one guy at the station who seems to get all the action, everyone else seems too old, too crazy or just too awkward. It looks good, in that 60s New Wave sort of way. Because of the similarity of such Czech films of the period I have seen it pondered as to whether the films were like this because the people of that country have a very strange relationship with sexual activity or whether it was simply the style generated by the one film school that gave rise to this particular group of directors. More interesting than the film, I'm afraid. But there are fine moments - the horse ridden across the tracks and out of the steam, its lady rider adjusting her seating, the delightful young girl who lays down to be rubber stamped up to her bottom but it isn't quite enough to make this as good as the Milos Foreman films just before and just after.

Great little flick **possible spoilers**

[squeezebox · 10/10 · 21 February 2003]

This is one of those movies that is so totally unpretentious and subtle, you're barely aware just how great it is.

It's the simple story of a young worker at a train station, during World War II when the Nazis are spreading like disease throughout Europe. Trains carrying Nazi officials and soldiers pass by the train station on a regular basis. While this is bad, it isn't the biggest problem. The kid's budding sexuality has begun to boil over, and he desperately searches for answers as to why he is turned on by seemingly mundane, non-sexual things (a goose being stuffed for dinner, a train whistle blowing, etc.).

He plays sidekick to an older station worker, who has no problem with the ladies at all. The famous scene in which he stamps a young female co-worker's bare buns is both funny and hypnotically erotic.

I won't give away the ending, but, while it certainly is something of a downer, there's an uplifting element to it as well, as our hero finally gets his priorities straight and truly becomes a man. This is a great little movie, well worth checking out.

patriotism blended with sex!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 13 August 2005]

This is a good, though far from great film. It concerns the exploits of a premature ejaculator who just started a job with the railroad in Czechoslovakia during WWII. Yes, I DID say "premature ejaculator". So, you can rightly assume this is NOT a movie for the kids to watch. The movie is a very strange amalgamation of two types of film--sort of like Porky's meets The Guns of Navarone! So, apart from watching our hero overcome his control problem, we also watch him and his colleagues as they sabotage Nazi trains as resistance fighters. What a bizarre combination. There is good acting (the actors reminded me of those in the movies by De Sica--just everyday folks as opposed to people who looked and acted like actors). This is the movie's strength. It's greatest weakness is that it spends too much time on nookie and not enough on a real plot. If you want a better Czech film about WWII, try The Shop on Main Street--a much more memorable and important film.

A lovely little gem

[jay4stein79-1 · 8/10 · 5 March 2006]

Closely Watched Trains is a petite film that is incredibly and darkly amusing, chronicling the sexual coming of age of an apprentice stationmaster--or something like that. The fact is I watched the movie about two years ago.

What I remember are wild oscillations from bright humor to dark (unless, of course, I'm supposed to think the boy's suicide attempt resulting from failed coitus is serious) and one of the most erotic moments in cinematic history--the worldly stationmaster stamping the buttocks of his conquest. The scene is utterly strange but entirely sensual; it's also completely at odds with what the general population finds sexy. And yet it's among the sexiest things I've ever encountered--right up there with Barbara Stanwyck fondling Henry Fonda's head in The Lady Eve.

I also remember that this isn't just about sexual awakening. The subtext of political subversion clearly transforms the film from a European version of Porky's or American Pie. Could it all be an allegory? Could the boy be the new Czechoslovakia? Could he, as an individual who, once he achieves his goal, dies from his newfound maturity, represent this Eastern Bloc nation? Could the older workers at the station reflect the country's history? Probably, but I wouldn't count on it. And, frankly, it doesn't matter if they do. The film works well enough without allegory and the subplot of political subversion lends an element of seriousness to an otherwise humorous movie. In other words, it's not all comedy, and that's as it should be.

Closely Watched Trains is a great movie and one you should seek out. It's the type of foreign film that connoisseurs and laypeople alike will enjoy. It's like My Life as a Dog or All About My Mother--a crowd pleaser without being facile.

Entertaining adaptation of the Hrabal story

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 6 December 2019]

Dominated by Nazi Germany in the time of the story, and dominated by the Soviet Union when it was written, there is a resigned cynicism in these Czech characters, but one that feels aloof and lighthearted from the madness of the world around them. The young man wants to get a job at the train station so that he can work as little as possible, in the time-honored tradition of his father and grandfathers, and is more interested in getting laid than in the Nazi occupation or the war. The entire town knows it and doesn't care, which says something about the national psyche that dates back to The Good Soldier Svejk, and maybe earlier. The older guy he works with is a lady's man who's got just one thing on his mind as well.

The extent of this philandering is such that it took away a little bit from my enjoyment of the film, despite the wonderful black and white shots in the railroad station that director Jiri Menzel gives us, the little bits of comedy, and the beauty of Jitka Zelenohorska, who gets her backside stamped all over in one of the film's more famous sequences. Maybe it's honest in showing a lack of interest in politics and these guys simply looking out for themselves, but for me, the serious turn the plot takes, leading to what was a great ending, just came a little bit late to truly love the film. I've only read a couple of Hrabal's books, 'Too Loud a Solitude' and 'I Served the King of England,' and I found I had a similar reaction. Some really great parts, the window into Czechoslovakia's zeitgeist in the 60's/70's, and some lighthearted humor ... but sometimes meandering, and usually pretty immature when it comes to the sex bits, which he sprinkles in regularly.

Director Menzel would do a quite better job in Lessons of Childhood

[jgcorrea · 5/10 · 8 May 2020]

I cannot say that I am not a fan of the Czech style of humor: ¨black¨, or absurdist. When in Prague, he went to a "Black Theater" every night. Eventually, I got tired of the show genre. I did enjoy the films Fireman's Ball , Taking Off and Peter the Black (with blackness in the title itself) by Milos Forman. But Closely Watched Trains? an Oscar for best foreign film in 1966? Wait a minute... I don't know exactly in what year it was released in the USA but 1966 was also the year of: Persona Au hasard Balthazar Battle of Algiers Hunger Even min or films like The war is over, by Resnais Saura's The hunt The Brancaleone Army A new world, by De Sica Der Junge Torless As Cariocas Engraçadinha after 30 La curée, by Vadim were superior to these Trains, which revolve around a naive young man and his sexual initiation. It might have been funny, but it isn't. Even the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia is treated comically. I didn't see the movie at the time, but today... Quite boring & irrelevant.