Closely Watched Trains (1966)

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Closely Watched Trains (1966) – J. Menzel

Czechoslovakia was another country to have an exciting “new wave” of cinema in the 1960’s (with Milos Forman, who later made his mark in Hollywood, one of the leading lights).  This film, directed by Jiri Menzel, won the Academy Award for best foreign film and it is an affectionate comic delight.  Demonstrating that growing up – and losing your virginity – is something that preoccupies young people regardless of any political conflicts going on in the background, the film follows Milos Hrma, a young man who starts his first job as a small town train dispatcher and who suffers from premature ejaculation.  You see, his girlfriend wants to do it and his older colleague at the station is always doing it in the stationmaster’s office – but, there’s that problem.  The film is basically anecdotal, a fond “coming of age” story but it ends with an absurdly dark twist (that somehow can’t be taken seriously, despite what we know about the Czech experience in WWII, when the film takes place).  Menzel and his team manage to make the station feel real and lived in, with a number of eccentric characters and believable incidents, all the while taking the film into new territory with clever editing and nicely composed shots.