During the German occupation, a young man, Milos, (Vaclav Neckar) works as a trainee railway guard in a country station. He has only one thing on his mind; to lose his virginity, possibly with the wife of the station master (Libuse Havelkova). His attempts take him through the trauma of premature ejaculation, an attempted suicide and finally success with a member of the Underground Movement, before tragedy strikes. ‘Closely observed trains’ is adapted from a novel by Bohumil Hrabal. This film is one of the finest achievements of the Czech ‘New Wave’ and was the second Czech film to win an Oscar for best foreign film in 1967. The film was banned after the Soviet invasion of 1968 as ‘pornographic’. In Czech with English subtitles.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
309413
Languages
Czech
English
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Academy awards (Motion pictures)
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Czech Republic - Social life and customs
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Sexual attraction
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)