Trailer
Plot summary
Miloš Hrma takes a job as apprentice dispatcher at a small railway station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, a post that lets him wear a uniform and carry a disc along the platform when the infrequent trains come through. The stationmaster, Lanska, keeps pigeons and disapproves of other people's morals, while the dispatcher Hubička has a name at the depot for his way with women, and Miloš, still a virgin, admires him. The conductor Máša, who also helps in her uncle's photography shop, wants Miloš and invites him to spend a night at the studio. Councillor Zedníček, a collaborator, visits to remind the staff that the station's trains matter to the German cause.
Cast
- Jitka Scoffinas Mása (as Jitka Bendová)
- Vladimír Valentaas Prednosta stanice
- Alois Vachekas stanicní pomocník Novák
- Ferdinand Krutaas fotograf Noneman, Másin strýc
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Closely Watched Trains (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Menzel's first choice for the lead Miloš was Vladimír Pucholt, who was then busy filming Jiří Krejčík's Svatba jako řemen. Menzel judged himself too old at almost 28, so fifteen non-professional actors were tested before the wife of poet and publisher Ladislav Fikar suggested pop singer Václav Neckář.
- Director Jiří Menzel took on the cameo role of the doctor himself at the last minute, after the actor originally cast in it failed to show up for shooting.
- In the film, the line dismissing the Czech people as "nothing but laughing hyenas" was a phrase actually employed by the senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich.
