Closely Watched Trains

Closely Watched Trains
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jiří Menzel
Produced by	Zdeněk Oves
Screenplay by	Jiří Menzel
Based on	Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal
Starring	Václav Neckář Jitka Bendová Josef Somr Vlastimil Brodský Vladimír Valenta
Music by	Jiří Šust
Cinematography	Jaromír Šofr
Edited by	Jiřina Lukešová
Production company	Barrandov Studios Ceskoslovensky Film
Distributed by	Ústřední půjčovna filmů
Release date	18 November 1966 (1966-11-18)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	Czech German
Box office	$1,500,000 (US/ Canada)

Closely Watched Trains (Czech: Ostře sledované vlaky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel, and one of the best-known products of the Czechoslovak New Wave. It was released in the United Kingdom as Closely Observed Trains. It is a coming-of-age story about a young man working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. The film is based on a 1965 novel by Bohumil Hrabal. It was produced by Barrandov Studios and filmed on location in Central Bohemia. Released outside Czechoslovakia during 1967, it won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968.

The young Miloš Hrma, who speaks with misplaced pride of his family of misfits and , is engaged as a newly trained station guard in a small railway station during the Second World War and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. He admires himself in his new uniform, and looks forward, like his prematurely-retired railwayman father, to avoiding real work. The sometimes pompous stationmaster is an enthusiastic pigeon-breeder with a kind wife, but is envious of the train dispatcher Hubička's success with women. Miloš holds an as-yet platonic love for the pretty, young conductor Máša. The experienced Hubička presses for details of their relationship and realizes that Miloš is still a virgin.

The of the railway station is periodically disturbed by the arrival of the councillor, Zednicek, a Nazi collaborator, who spouts propaganda at the staff without success. At her initiative, Máša spends the night with Miloš, but in his youthful excitability he ejaculates prematurely before achieving penetration and then is unable to perform sexually; and the next day, despairing, he attempts suicide. He is saved, and a young doctor explains to him that ejaculatio praecox is normal at Miloš's age. The doctor recommends Miloš to "think of something else" (at which point Miloš volunteers an interest in football), and to seek the assistance of an experienced woman. During the nightshift, Hubička flirts with the young telegraphist, Zdenička, and imprints her thighs and buttocks with the office's rubber stamps. Her mother sees the stamps and complains to Hubička's superiors, and the ensuing scandal helps to frustrate the stationmaster's ambition of being promoted to inspector.