For a variety of reasons, not least of which was likely the sudden weather change from gorgeous to disgusting, we had a pretty small group in the house for the second feature of the new MovieNight season, but a lucky group it was!

Made in Czechoslovakia in 1966 at the start of a period of discontent with Soviet rule (which would build into the “Prague Spring” two years later) Closely Watched Trains is a masterpiece of cinematic excellence, which has no doubt influenced many filmmakers over the past (almost) fifty years. A first glance, it’s a gentle comedy about a boy turning into a man, set in a train station in Nazi-held territory during World War II. His co-workers are a hodge podge of entertaining characters, one of whom is a not-entirely-unlikeable womanizer, who tries to help the boy out. In the scene below he seduces (or is perhaps seduced by) another railway worker.

When her mother discovers that she has been “stamped”, she embarks on a campaign to see justice done, but in the end, the worst “crime” is deemed to be “abuse and disgrace of the German national language”. This is all quite amusing (and rather sexy), but it is just one example of how Closely Watched Trains takes satirical aim at bureaucracy and authority. Please seek it out!

More about this film on IMDb