The Oscar-winning 1966 film Closely Watched Trains (Czech: Ostře sledované vlaky) is a Czech comedy-drama film directed by Jiří Menzel and adapted from Bohumil Hrabal's 1965 novella of the same name. The film stars Václav Neckář as the young and inexperienced Miloš Hrma and Josef Somr as train dispatcher Ladislav Hubička. The film is set during the bleak period of World War II in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, the train and the small railway station where the young protagonist lives.
Miloš Hrma comes from a family with a history of avoiding hard work. Miloš starts work as an apprentice at a small, provincial railway station, a seemingly uneventful job. However, this setting becomes the stage for his journey into adulthood and self-discovery. The narrative explores Miloš's relationships with his colleagues at the station and his romantic aspirations. The film delicately balances the comic aspects of Miloš's sexual adventures with the more serious undertones of war and resistance to the German occupiers. A major turning point in the film comes when Miloš is involved in a plot to plant a bomb on a Nazi ammunition train. This act of sabotage, far removed from his previous carefree and somewhat aimless existence, is a critical moment in his coming of age.
In the film, trains are portrayed as the lifeline of the small town, carrying not only people and goods but also hopes, dreams, and the heavy burden of an occupied nation. The coming and going of the trains marks the passage of time in a place where every other normalcy has been disrupted by war. The train carries a variety of people, including German soldiers, resistance fighters, and ordinary citizens, each representing different facets of the war's impact on everyday life.
Behind-the-scenes facts:
- "Genau beobachtete Züge", i.e. "Closely watched trains", was the name given to the highest priority trains. They carried equipment for the German breakthrough front in eastern Russia.
- "Closely Watched Trains" not only won the 1967 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but is also considered a seminal work of the Czech New Wave, a film movement known for its dark humor, social commentary, and innovative cinematographic techniques.
- The film was shot on location in a small town in Czechoslovakia, lending an air of authenticity to the portrayal of the train and the station. The choice of location helped to capture the essence of the period and the ordinary lives disrupted by the war.
- The film was shot on location in a small town in Czechoslovakia, lending an air of authenticity to the portrayal of the train and the station. The choice of location helped to capture the essence of the period and the ordinary lives disrupted by the war.
- The author of the book upon which the film is based, Bohumil Hrabal, was himself a railway worker during the war.
