Ostre sledované vlaky
Tags: humor, satire, murder, storytelling

Plot synopsis:
The young Miloš Hrma, who speaks with misplaced pride of his family of misfits and malingerers, is engaged as a newly trained station guard in a small railway station during the Second World War and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. He admires himself in his new uniform, and looks forward, like his prematurely-retired railwayman father, to avoiding real work. The sometimes pompous stationmaster is an enthusiastic pigeon-breeder with a kind wife, but is envious of the train dispatcher Hubička's success with women. Miloš holds an as-yet platonic love for the pretty, young conductor Máša. The experienced Hubička presses for details of their relationship and realizes that Miloš is still a virgin.
The idyll of the railway station is periodically disturbed by the arrival of the councillor, Zednicek, a Nazi collaborator, who spouts propaganda at the staff without success. At her initiative, Máša spends the night with Miloš, but in his youthful excitability he ejaculates prematurely before achieving penetration and then is unable to perform sexually; and the next day, despairing, he attempts suicide. He is saved, and a young doctor explains to him that ejaculatio praecox is normal at Miloš's age. The doctor recommends Miloš to "think of something else" (at which point Miloš volunteers an interest in football), and to seek the assistance of an experienced woman. 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, and the ensuing scandal helps to frustrate the stationmaster's ambition of being promoted to inspector.
The Germans and their collaborators are on edge, since their trains are being attacked by the partisans. A glamorous Resistance agent (a circus artist in peacetime), 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, Hubička is caught up in a farcical disciplinary hearing, overseen by Zednicek, over his rubber stamping of Zdenička's backside. In Hubička's place, Miloš, liberated by his experience with Viktoria from his former passivity, takes the time bomb and drops it from a semaphore gantry, that extends transversely above the tracks, onto the train. A machine-gunner on the train, spotting Miloš, sprays him with bullets, and his body falls onto the train. With the Nazi collaborator Zednicek winding up the disciplinary hearing, dismissing the Czech people as "nothing but laughing hyenas" (a phrase actually employed by the senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich), the implicit retort to his jibe comes in the form of a huge series of explosions that destroys the train. Now Hubička and the other railwaymen are indeed laughing — to express their joy at the blow to the Nazi occupiers — and it is left to a wistful Máša to pick up Miloš's uniform cap, hurled across the station by the power of the blast.

Review: 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.
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.
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.
Note: Closely Watched Trains won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1967..
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
'Ostře sledované vlaky', the winner of 68's Foreign Film Oscar, tells the story of the workers of a small railway station in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia as WWII rages on and the railway is a target for Czech partisans.
Young Milo Hrma is in love with the conductor Máa but is unable to perform sexually in his first time; the somewhat perverted dispatcher Hubička tries to help him while also ending up in a sexual scandal; and a plot by the partisans is set in motion to attack the trains.This Czechoslovakian film stands apart from others in that it is a serious war film but has the feel of the silly spy/noir films from the Cold War Era, as well as a strange, more sexually charged but still naive style of comedy.
Sometimes it tries too hard (or maybe too little) to make the comedy come naturally, making it not work well; however, when not funny, it is still often amusing to watch, more so when you consider its sexual aspect in a time it was probably a scandal in most places for it to be shown this blatantly.The movie is at times slow, a trademark of European dramas, but at only 93 minutes there is too little time to actually be boring.
The explanation for the title of Jiri Menzel's film is that it was apparently derived from a military designation employed by the Germans who ran the railways in occupied Czechoslovakia, and would probably have indicated that the highest level of security was to be observed for the whole length of the railway system over which a train so designated had to pass.'Closely Observed Trains' - its title in Britain is probably the better translation - sounds like the rambling memoir of some harmlessly eccentric train-buff: Gauge numbers, timetables, wheel configurations - that sort of thing!
The film alerts us to the fact that the gentlest contempt is as cruel and destructive as the most brutal jackbooted hate: A collaborationist gesture is satirized, and the inky soul of bureaucracy is exposed.The most decent and honest person in the film, apart from the young Conductress (who appears to be a Resistance agent), is VÃ¡clav, largely because of what is conventionally seen as the tragedy of his doomed love-life: He is untainted by the conforming adult world around him - a tormented innocent, like Christ, and similarly destined to be mankind's saviour through suffering.Perhaps his cap, rolling down the Station platform before the blast, represents the crown of thorns that every Czech had to pick up, before the new Rome of Hitler's Germany could be defeated?
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..
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..
The film is based on a 1965 novel by Bohumil Hrabal.The young Milo Hrma, who speaks with misplaced pride of his family of misfits and malingerers, is engaged as a newly trained station guard in a small railway station during the Second World War and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Problems arise when Máa wants sex with Milo...It is a coming-of-age story about a nervous young man who is going through a kind of "sexual crisis" to a desperate knowledge.
An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform.Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Closely Watched Trains "as expert and moving in its way as was Jan Kadar's and Elmar Klos's 'The Shop on Main Street' or Milos Forman's 'Loves of a Blonde'," two roughly contemporary films from Czechoslovakia.Indeed, the so-called Czech New Wave really deserves more praise.
1968's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to this debut feature from Jiri Menzel, which concerns the comedic and tragic events at a small railway station during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War.Essentially a coming-of-age story, the film focuses on Milos Hrma (Vaclav Neckar), a young man learning the ropes as a station guard.
But all Milos wants to do is get his end away with flirty conductor Masa (Jitka Bendova) without falling prey to premature ejaculation.Certainly, like his father, Milos has no intention to actually do any work – until, that is, his sexual frustration is harnessed by a beautiful Resistance agent, who convinces him to blow up a Nazi ammunition train.
It's a deliberately tonally-awkward film, juxtaposing broad sex comedy with, amongst other things, a surreal air raid, a properly distressing suicide scene, and brutal gut-punch of an ending.So, the tone is mutable, the style is formal, and the comedy is deadpan – the influence on modern filmmakers like Wes Anderson and Jared Hess is in abundance.For all its whimsy and kinkiness and ironic jabs at moral imperialism (one character wails to his wife about the decline of social morality as he lusts over the dispatcher's saucy cousin), the ultimate message – that youthful lust can be so easily appropriated for the cause of another's ideology – is dead serious.
During the Nazi occupation in a small Czech town, a shy and uncertain young railway assistant learns about sex and accidentally becomes a wartime hero.Darkly humorous, accurately detailed satire with some typical philistine characters and a tendency to push the Anti-Nazi resistance off its pedestal.
Sad, but funny; satirical, but not cynical; "Closely Watched Trains" is among the finest films to come out of the legendary Czech New Wave.
It will likely be relatable for many (I could certainly identify with the film to an extent), and through this relatability comes all of the comedy a viewer could possibly hope for.This is a brilliant and quick movie that may have moments of juvenile humor and seem like a mainstream flick that happens to be in black and white featuring subtitles, but it is also intelligent, satirical, poignant, profound, insightful, important, and genuinely funny..
Václav Neckář's guard in the train station in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia has the hots for Jitka Bendová's conductor and they have an awkward experience at first.
It's probably the best product of the Czech New Wave.In part it's about a boy discovering his sexuality -- while performing the least sexy job in the universe: watching trains.
The "Closely Watched Trains" are those that are carrying supplies to the German army in and through occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Closely Watched Trains is a great movie and one you should seek out.
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.
Although we do have something of a main character in Milos (Vaclav Neckar)the teenage virgin apprentice trainee there is a full complement of support both in and around the station from the stationmaster Max (Vladimir Valenta) and his wife (Libuse Havelkova) who are active in poultry, train dispatcher Hubicka (Josef Somr)the Czech equivalent of a babe magnet and who is ultimately responsible for Milos getting laid, Milos's girlfriend of sorts, Masa (Jitka Bendova) who is unable to make Milos a 'man' and Victoria Freie (Nada Ubankova) who succeeds where Masa fails.
After stumbling upon the stunning film Romance for Bugle,I decided to take a look at other Czech titles that the up-loader had put on,and I spotted the first ever Czech Oscar winner,which led to me getting ready to catch the train.The plot-WWII-Nazi Occupied Czechoslovakia:Following in his family footsteps, Milos Hrma gets set to be a guard at a train station,in the hope of having to avoid any real work,esp on the front line.With the idyll life at the train station only being interrupted by the odd appearance of Nazi collaborator Zednicek,Hrma talks to fellow staff member Hubička about still being a virgin.
Encouraged to chat to a pretty young conductor called Máa,Hrma ends up having a night with Máa,that goes off the tracks prematurely.As Hrma starts to question his manhood, Hubička starts making plans to stop the Nazis in their tracks.View on the film:Placing the train station in the middle of nowhere,co-writer/(along with Bohumil Hrabal) director Jirí Menzel & cinematographer Jaromír Sofr track the horrors of war in the countryside with a ride to Milo Hrma's rites of passage.Keeping both feet on the ground,Menzel avoids flashy tricks for an elegant,rustic atmosphere,as Menzel's lingering shots pick up on the locals attempting to keep their livelihood in tack,whilst making explosive plans against the occupying Nazis.
Following Hrma on his agonising rites of passage,Menzel takes a restrained approach with jazzy fade ins/fade outs fading in on Hrma's sexual awakening.Filmed as the country was in the early stages of an economy recovery, Menzel & Hrabal's adaptation of Hrabal's own book lays superbly allegorical Czech New Wave tracks down against the Soviet Union,by making Hrma and all the other locals undermine all of the rules that the occupying rulers are enforcing on them.Making sure to not go off track with the political notes,the writers weave the allegorical edges with a delightfully ill-at-ease coming of age Drama,that shakes all of Menzel loose hormones out onto the station.Secretly going against the barking orders from the Nazis, Josef Somr gives a great performance as Hubicka,whose playfulness Somr reveals to be a shell for a cunning mind.Topping the charts with Czech Pop at the time, Václav Neckár gives an excellent performance as Hrma,thanks to Neckár coating Hrma in a shaky bag of awkward nerves,as Hrma closely watches the trains..
The film's narrative traces the attempts of a young man, Milos--an apprentice station agent--to be comfortable with his manhood despite suffering from premature ejaculation on his first attempt at sexual relations with his girlfriend; she's a very inviting, pretty conductor on a local train that often stops at his station.My only problem with this is that its story-line depends on 2 small town, Czechoslovakian young (18?
If you can put aside the incongruous sexual freedom of the two girls, it works very well.SECOND LOOK: This film was made in 1966 when Czechoslovakia was under Russian domination.
Basically, set during World War II, at the time where Germany were losing to the other countries of the world they were fighting, young Milo Hrma (Václav Neckár) is employed by a small railway station, but his is not being paid.
This film of the Czechoslovak New Wave has a gentle sense of the absurd, as if young Milos was still stuck in his childhood and unable to reconcile with what was looming to be a second world war.
Closely Watched Trains by Jiri Menzel is a film that particularly deals with youth and its connections with memories and its various afflictions.