Closely Watched Trains (The Criterion Collection)

Jiri Menzel's comic and tragic Closey Watched Trains tells the simple story about a young bumbling train dispatcher apprentice who longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Completely oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this naive young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery and sexual wakening, encountering a world of eroticism and sexual frustration. Closely Watched Trains was one of a few wave of Czechoslovakian films during the late 1960's which suddenly burst into the West, catching many film-goers off-guard. Most of the films were very small in scale, and its stories focused mostly on ordinary, regular people, who were regarded with a tender, sly and sweet human affection.

Many many critics and fans were extremely grateful for these spontaneous and lovable Czechoslovakian films of the 60's, especially Closely Watched Trains, which was equally loved by film-watchers and critics as the film won the Academy Award as the Best Foreign Language Film of 1967. Closely Watched Trains is much more than a simple sexual comedy, as it is highly rich in character's and comic situations, including an iconic sequence which involves a rubber-stamp and a bare woman's buttocks; which makes for one of the most original and slightly erotic moments in all of film history.