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Closely Watched Trains

Started by Shoulders?-Stomach!, October 28, 2018, 10:31:54 PM

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Shoulders?-Stomach!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closely_Watched_Trains

Just watched this film after a strong recommendation and would like to pass it on.

It's a coming of age story set in a Czech train station during WWII (though the film is from 1996), based on a book of the same name by Bohumil Hrabal and features many amusing caricatures and vignettes, as well as a similar comic sense to The Good Soldier Svejk.

Socially there is a perhaps a sense of the era which it was shot, because there's a focus on elderly moralising about supposedly low, lascivious behaviour by the young, which is more of a 60s issue really.

Apparently this was critically acclaimed at the time and I can see why. Some of the editing still feels modern and although certain scenes aren't explicit as you might expect in French or Italian cinema, it has a modern sensibility and and an atmosphere that almost brimming with sedition. It is almost as though its own censorship mirrors the repressed, boiling to the surface sense of desire and expression in the film. Works well. Although, it would be ripe for a remake - potential for a modern director to expand on it without losing the core story or character.

Without wanting to spoil anything, there is a moment halfway through that seems to come out of the blue in terms of its proportion to events and genuinely shocked me.

Pleased to say this is available with English subtitles online:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzrgmd (pt1)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzqeyw (pt2)


Glebe

[tag]Fat Controller "tightening the reigns".[/tag]

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on October 28, 2018, 10:31:54 PM
Socially there is a perhaps a sense of the era which it was shot, because there's a focus on elderly moralising about supposedly low, lascivious behaviour by the young, which is more of a 60s issue really.

That's interesting because my memory of the film is that it was the older generation who were salacious and pervy. Milos' balding colleague is constantly having, talking about, and encouraging sex. We also see Masa's uncle groping her bottom at the photoshoot.

Milos' voyeurism seems like a symptom of being surrounded by dirty old men.

chveik

This is a great film. There are a lot of underrated gems from the Czech New Wave.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: Default to the negative on November 09, 2018, 02:11:51 AM
That's interesting because my memory of the film is that it was the older generation who were salacious and pervy. Milos' balding colleague is constantly having, talking about, and encouraging sex. We also see Masa's uncle groping her bottom at the photoshoot.

Milos' voyeurism seems like a symptom of being surrounded by dirty old men.

I guess the station master is the hypocrite as he is slyly perving on the women while trying to remain upstanding, whereas Milos' mentor doesn't care how he looks. Also his mentor is far younger, probably still 30-something.

It's the elderly and those in authority who are moralising or want to be seen to be, regardless of how they are underneath. It also makes you think just how boring long nights must have been back then, it must have taken acute level distraction to avoid just fucking each other's brains out