Los trenes rigurosamente vigilados

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.