Tickets

I knew pretty much nothing about "Tickets" before watching it, except that Ken Loach was involved in it, so I suspected that there was going to be some social issue addressed therein. It turned out to be sort of an anthology movie, with a whole sequence directed by three people (in addition to Loach, Ermanno Olmi and Abbas Kiarostami participated).

The movie takes place aboard a train going from Innsbruck to Rome, and looks at the experiences of some of a professor, an elderly woman, and some sports fans. I could tell that the last one was Loach's work, since it was the most socially conscious.

In the end, I wouldn't call it the greatest output from any of the directors, but it's an interesting enough movie for its runtime. It sure makes one wish that the US had the kind of train system that Europe has (or that Japan has).

An overnight Trenitalia Intercity train from Innsbruck to Rome is the venue for three short stories that happen on the same journey.

(1) An Italian bio-pharma professor returning from a day-long meeting in Austria is unable to use airline tickets to fly back to Rome and instead is forced to return by train. It's night and the train leaves Innsbruck. A scrambled time-line, surreal elements and the most exaggerated caricature.

(2) A young man and a general's wife -- an impertinent woman -- travel in first class with second class tickets. Straight narrative, filled with little episodes, and the most humorous.

(3) Three Scottish lads clad in white-green soccer fan T-shirts en route to Rome to attend a game are faced with the loss of one of their train tickets. Straight narrative and a view on the multi-cultural crosscurrents of Europe. It's daytime and the film closes with the train's arrival at Rome's Termini station.

In the confined and crowded linear space of passenger trains, secondary characters bump into each other and that helps stitch the stories loosely together. Of those, members of an Albanian immigrant family --Roma gypsies? -- play parts in the first and third.

Don't go looking for a strong narrative backbone. Instead take this film for what it really is, a caricature of train travel in Europe. Think in terms of vignettes: examples of the myriad situations that one may observe when travelling by train in the EU. The film is a sampler of those situations, but a concentrated one. Take it is a primer if you have not visited there. Buy your ticket and enjoy the ride.

I put this on not having a clue what to expect and what a pleasant surprise it was. 1 train trip to Rome, 3 different directors, 3 different stories, and an intertwining passenger cast.

Part 1 - Ermanno Olmi. Part 2 - Abbas Kiarostami. Part 3 - Ken Loach.

1, The way everyone's eyes fixate and follow anyone making a noise on the train really gave me anxiety.

2, I found the second part more interesting. It gets you thinking a bit and had me feel pretty judgmental by the end.

3, This chapter was my favourite. Simple, effective and a good way to end the film.

Throughout the twentieth century, critics and filmmakers alike have often commented upon the interactive relationship between transit and cinema, interpreting train travel as a visual metaphor which fuses these notions together. In "Tickets", a film which unites three famous 'auteurs' of contemporary cinema- Abbas Kiarostami, Ermanno Olmi and Ken Loach- three narratives of differing cultural sensibilities are intertwined within a single journey aboard a train from Eastern Europe to Rome. Although there are noticeable shifts between the narratives of each of the directors, particularly if you have already seen some of their previous films, the individual signatures of each director create a unique tripartite and structure that breathes life into the complex human interactions experienced whilst on the journey.

It can be said that aesthetically trains provide confined moving spaces, which Einstein would suggest, are only relative to our perceptions. While the relationships between the characters in "Tickets" are often utterly separate, from a lonely professor dreaming of love to three Celtic soccer fans on their way to a Champions League game, by occupying the same social space the characters are intrinsically linked to one another. In this vein, the film adopts a particularly European sentiment that is closely associated with the emergence of the European Union. Yet, to imply that this theme resonates in a dominant manner throughout the film is incorrect. Rather, this an intensely beautiful film bound by a shared ability of the directors to convey the emotional subtleties and internal perceptions of the various characters, all of which are, whilst aboard the same train, ultimately traveling in different directions. For this reason, "Tickets" is a rewarding film that allows you to think outside the exaggerated and distorted realities imposed by many films today. It certainly is worth a ticket!

9/10

Tickets deals with three different visions on a train journey, following three different stories that in fact interact with each other. The first part of the movie could be quite boring if you consider that there are too many symbols, too many voice-over, and not enough action. But the whole story is well-written and has a real narrative force. The second story is also full of symbols...this old woman seems to carrie a burden...we feel her despair and sadness. The young man who accompanies her, does not say much...but rather show his feeling through his acts...and this will explain his final decision... I especially liked the third story, dealing with the three Scottish Guys and the refugee family...i won't tell too much.

This is a good movie.