Closely Observed Trains

Date
Hour
Place
04/08
20:30
CASTLE, JANOWIEC


Ostře sledované vlaky
reż|dir Jiří Menzel| ČSR | 1966 | 93 min
prod|pro scen|wr Bohumil Hrabal, Jiři Menzel zdj|ph Jaromir Šoftr muz|mus Jiři ŠustJohn mon|ed Jiřina Lukešova ob|cast Vaclav Neckař, Jitka Bendova, Vladimir Valenta, Libuše Haevelkova, Josef Somr, Alois Vachek, Jitka Zelenohorska, Vlastimil Brodsky, Květa Fialova

DESCRIPTION

The time is the 1940s, sometime during the period of the Nazi Occupation in Czechoslovakia and Milos Hrma (Vaclav Neckar) is telling the viewer about his ancestors and their working history, many of them loafers and incompetents. Milos states that he desires a job in which he will not have to do any work. Milos tells the story of one of his uncles who worked as a mentalist, and as the army stormed into the Czech town he stood before them mentally holding them back, upon which time the army promptly crush the uncle under their wheels and moved on. Among some of the facts of life that Milos learns are the way that men behave around women, specifically how men and women mate. Milos watches as a train dispatcher Hubicka (Josef Somr) seduces a young woman who visits the station. Milos is approached by Masa (Marie Jezkova) a young beautiful train conductor and whisked away for a weekend of sex. Milos, young and unknowing about the ways of mating, doesnt perform and under emotional anxiety tries to commit suicide. Attending therapy and readjusting, Milos returns to the station where he gets involved in the Czech underground, an organization planning to bomb a Nazi munitions train. When Hubicka is called before a group because he has been caught in a tryst with Holy Zdenka (Jitka Zelenohorska) a young woman, Milos takes action against the occupying army.

CO-ORGANIZAR | Arttech Cinema

www.arttechcinema.pl


AWARDS
1968 Academy Awards – Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
1958 Golden Globes – nomination for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film
1969 BAFTA Awards – nomination for Best Film (Jiří Menzel), nomination for Best Sound Track (Jiří Pavlík)

DIRECTOR
Jiří Menzel is a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura. Menzel, a member of the Czech New Wave, became internationally famous in 1967, when his first feature film, “Closely Watched Trains”, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His controversial film “Larks on a String” was filmed in 1969, but was initially banned by the Czechoslovakian government. It was finally released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. The film won the Golden Bear at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival. Menzel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again in 1986 with his dark comedy “My Sweet Little Village”. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1989 he was a member of the jury at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1995 he was a member of the jury at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival. He was conferred with IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

© Festiwal Filmu i Sztuki Dwa Brzegi Kazimierz Dolny Janowiec nad Wisłą
Projekt i realizacja: Tomasz Żewłakow