A few weeks ago, our national television has premiered A Better Tomorrow, and official TV guides labelled this film as American. Of course, even the most ignorant people would hardly mistake Hong Kong for US state, so this move should be explained as an attempt to draw as large an audience to TV sets as possible. The general audience today perceives only American films to be worth watching. A few decades ago it was the same, but there were a few dissenting voices that were pointing out the fact that non-American films can be entertaining too, and some of them even superior to Hollywood products. One of the best arguments for that is Czech cinema. Even communism couldn’t prevent Czechs from creating films that later turned out to be pleasant viewing experiences for audiences outside festival circles. There were two areas that brought fame to Czech cinema – children’s films and comedies. In the case of the latter, it was mostly due to the fact that Communist rulers of Czechoslovakia discouraged filmmakers from creating serious films about obvious shortcomings of their socialist utopia. However, the long tradition of Czech humour, forged through centuries of foreign rule, proved to be too big a challenge even for the most diligent censors. Czech comedies, with their focus on the ordinary life of individuals, used an indirect approach to criticise the state of society in general. That approach was somewhat less indirect in the early to mid-1960s, when the wave of liberalisation that would culminate in the Prague Spring created some of the most successful and memorable films in the history of Czech cinema. One such film is Closely Watched Trains, a 1966 comedy by Jiří Menzel, which won an Oscar for best foreign film.
The plot of the film, based on the short story by Bohumil Hrabal, is set in autumn 1944. Bohemia is occupied by the Nazis, but not for long, because Germany is losing on all fronts. But the prospect of liberation doesn’t seem to bother ordinary people, at least those employed at Kostomlaty rail station. One of them is Miloš Hrma (played by Václav Neckář), a young trainee who has just begun to follow family tradition and earn his living by working in government service. He is introduced to the job by Hubička (played by Josef Somr), a womanising train dispatcher whose constant success with the opposite sex causes the envy of the old and obese station manager, Max (played by Vladimir Valenta). But Max is not the only one sexually frustrated; in such an atmosphere of debauchery, Miloš is painfully reminded of his own problems in his relationship with conductress Máša (played by Jitka Bendová), caused by his sexual inexperience. In the meantime, war is still going on, and Hubička, who is involved in the resistance movement, has a large ammunition train to stop.
Those unfamiliar with East European films would have some difficulty with the beginning of Closely Watched Trains. The interesting prologue (very funny and almost prophetic, when we consider that this film was made two years before the Warsaw Pact invasion) is followed by scenes in which the black-and-white photography looks unappealing and the pace is slow, with director Menzel often focusing on pointless naturalistic details. However, a viewer who is patient enough to adapt to the film’s unusual and often minimalistic style would be rewarded with an excellent comedy. The characters are perfectly drawn, and the actors are doing a great job in bringing them to life with small gestures. Václav Neckář is great as the protagonist, but even the actors in supporting roles are also great, like director Jiří Menzel in a hilarious cameo as a young doctor. Vlastimil Brodský, one of the best Czech character actors, is simply brilliant in the role of a collaborationist bureaucrat (and his character could be read as a metaphor for the apparatchiks of Communist Czechoslovakia). The humour, which is often very dark, brilliantly corresponds with the realism of the film; characters talk and behave like people we would expect to see in such circumstances. Humour and hedonism are their way of combating the sinister reality of war, foreign occupation and the poverty that it brings to people.
Unfortunately, the dark overtones of this comedy are expanded in the last part, and Closely Watched Trains slowly turns into a drama. Hubička’s transformation from hedonistic womaniser into dedicated resistance fighter isn’t quite explained. The subplot dealing with the German ammunition train still provides a good opportunity for a laugh or two, but this opportunity is missed. On the other hand, we have unnecessary symbolism – Miloš’s sexual maturity as a metaphor for his political self-awareness looks too much like similar clichés in many World War II films made in former Yugoslavia. Menzel ends the film rather abruptly, without a proper epilogue and with an unusual but rather realistic combination of tragedy and comedy. Even with the flaws that deprived Closely Watched Trains of being a true masterpiece, this is still a great film that truly deserved its Academy Award. Those who would like to enter the magic world of Czech cinema should use it as a starting point.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on November 22nd 1999)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/789-ost-e-sledovan-vlaky Critic: AAA
