Ostre Sledované Vlaky (Closely Watched Trains) (1966)

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  August 29, 2011

  hunterjt13

  A young man's burgeoning sexuality is a refuge and a distraction from the Nazi occupation.
  Reading other reviews, I think there is a lot of context that I'm missing. I'm unfamiliar with Czech New Wave cinema or the historical contexts that must have affected the film's productio... read moren.
  What I saw was a slow film that didn't amount to much beyond a self-conscious sex comedy. I noticed the satire when pious men deploy religion against sexual urges; though the reality is the complainers are just pissed off they aren't getting laid. And when Milos goes around asking various older women to sleep with him to cure him of "premature ejaculation," it seemed more the matter for a college comedy than an auteur's tour de force.
  Overall, I wasn't impressed with Closely Watched Trains, but I'm owning my own ignorance in this review.

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  December 17, 2010

  ebs90

  This film is a stylish and sensitive examination of adolescent fears and insecurities, a topic that never ever goes out of fashion. Jiri Menzel 'closely watches' a young man whose life revolves around a desire to lose his virginity, when he is not "busy" guarding a railway platfo... read morerm, literally watching and waving at the trains. In his static, inwards lifestyle, the character Milos, played by Vaclav Neckar, prefers to wither in his personal frustrations than to focus on the approaching German occupation; soon enough the clash of external violence and profound self-loathing send him over the edge and make him abandon his usual observant position. It may sound all very gloomy, and can be very heartbreaking at times, but the film is also very funny, full of black humor and awkward sexual metaphors. The character of Milos is unique in that he is both pathetic and heroic at the same time, and the film has a general 'quotidian' and relatable feel to it. Neckar's perfect performance, cool and clear cinematography and surrealistic undertones complete its charm.

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  July 29, 2009

  flixsterman

  One of the key elements of a true classic it its ability to weather the ravages of time. Jiri Menzel's dark comedy, Closely Watched Trains, passes this test with flying colors. Menzel quietly lampoons teen angst in a manner that's unique and tragic. Viewers have been la... read moreughing at this one for forty (+) years and I suspect they'll still be finding humor and relevance in it for a long time to come.

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• 
  
  July 24, 2009

  hypathio7

  Overall the story was a little uneven. It had a different sense of humor than I'm used to, but I did find it to be very funny. It's a foreign film in black and white set during WWII, in some ways a simpler more innocent time, but it deals with sexual themes in a humorous way li... read moreke The Graduate or The 40 Year Old Virgin or even American Pie. There are probably some better examples of Hollywood copying this type of story, but I can't think of more off the top of my head right now.
  
  Milos gets his first job working as a train station dispatcher. It shouldn't require too much hard work and he wants it that way so he can uphold the family tradition. The two men he works for always have sex on their minds (well the boss is married and has to be careful, so he likes taking care of pigeons too). Most of the women who appear in the story are flirtatious and attractive, the sort to occupy young men's dreams. Milos actually has a budding relationship with Masa. She is a conductor for a train that regularly goes by the station, and like the slightly older more sexually aware professional women she is, she takes the lead in suggesting they spend the night together. When he gets nervous and can't perform, he becomes depressed and attempts suicide. The director, Jiri Menzel, plays a doctor who advises Milos that premature ejaculation is perfectly normal and to think about fútbol. The doctor also advises that he should find a much older experienced woman to break him in so he'll be ready for the next time with his girlfriend. Then a good part of the rest of the movie involves Milos trying to find an older willing woman.
  
  Meanwhile, the Nazis stop by a couple times too to spread propaganda about the Fuhrer's purpose being to help all humanity. There is an underground movement that sees an opportunity to have a bomb dropped on a German train carrying munitions through the station where Milos works. And through the sexual escapades of a couple of his coworkers providing a distraction this heavy responsibility falls on Milos. Like I said, there are a lot of funny situations that then abruptly surprise you with a few tragic occurrences.

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  January 8, 2009

  jplong39

  I wonderful Czech film from the mid-sixties that is both a warm-lighthearted coming of age comedy and a thinly veiled, biting social satire. Milos Hrma comes from a family that prides itself on doing nothing, and he inherits a post as assistant train dispatcher at the local train... read more station requiring no physical effort. While Nazis ravage the countryside, the station crew is mostly obsessed with petty personal aims. The station manager is fanatically dedicated to a meaningless post and his beloved pidgeons, Hubicka, an avid womanizer, and poor shy Milos, who spends the majority of the film in a life and death struggle with premature ejaculation. The lightheartedness is not without well placed critical barbs, coinciding with the traumatic post-adolescent efforts of a young man trying to become...a man. By the films end however, justice is served on the evildoers, and heroes abound throughout. Fine performances by everyone with good camera-work full of social commentary and sexual metaphors. I've seen this at least a dozen times and it never loses its effect.

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  April 20, 2008

  williamleonard

  A slightly funny but definately ahead of it's time film about how perverted Czechs are.Between this and Dark Blue World, I think we know what they were doing in WW2.

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• Václav Neckár as Milos a railroad worker
• Jitka Bendova as Conductor Masa
• Vladimír Valenta as Station Master Max
• Libuse Havelková as Max's wife
• Josef Somr as Hubicka a dispatcher
• Alois Vachek as Novak
• Jitka Zelenohorska as Zdenka
• Vlastimil Brodský as Counselor Zednicek
• Jirí Menzel as Dr. Brabec

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