OSTŘE SLEDOVANÉ VLAKY

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay: Jiří Menzel, Bohumil Hrabal, tratta dal romanzo omonimo di / based on the novel of the same title by Bohumil Hrabal. Fotografia / Photography: Jaromír Šofr. Montaggio / Editing: Jiřina Lukešová. Musica / Music: Jiří Šust. Suono / Sound: Jiří Pavlík. Scenografia / Art Director: Oldrich Bosák. Costumi / Wardrobe: Olga Dimitrovová. Interpreti / Cast: Václav Neckář, Josef Somr, Jitka Bendová, Vladimír Valenta, Libuše Havelková, Alois Vachek, Jitka Zelenohorská, Vlastimil Brodský, Ferdinand Krůta, Květa Fialová, Naďa Urbánková, Jiří Menzel. Produzione / Produced by: Filmové Studio Barrandov. Distribuzione internazionale / World Sales: Národni filmový archiv (Prague).

“It’s 1945 and the scene is the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, where the trainee Miloš Hrma works in a small station after surviving an attempted suicide. The station (modelled on the station of Kostomlaty, where Bohumil Hrabal worked for a time) attracts a motley group of people: the head shunter Hubička, an undaunted and provincial ladies’ man, the ambitious but unlucky stationmaster, and especially Máša, the young and patient object of Miloš’s love. But the young man has his work cut out to prove himself worthy as a lover and a “real man”, and unfortunately his sexual development occurs hand in hand with the premature and tragic awakening of his patriotism.
This is the twenty-eight-year-old Menzel’s debut feature film, which brought him immediate international acclaim, helped by film critics’ interest in the Czech cinema of the time. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (1967) and was a great box-office success, although the more prudish audiences regarded it as “indecent” and it drew the ire of Czech and Soviet Stalinists. Menzel became a favourite child of the critics and his success cast doubt on his frequently repeated modesty as an author.”

(Massimo Tria, excerpt from the Catalogue of the 17th edition of Alpe Adria Cinema – Trieste Film Festival, Trieste 2006, p. 217, as part of the homage “Bohumil Hrabal. The cinema at the bottom” curated by Francesco Pitassio)

Jiří Menzel (1938-2020)

Film and theatre director, actor, Jiří Menzel was born in Prague in 1938. A leading exponent of the nová vlna, the new wave of Czechoslovak cinema of the 1960s, he was considered one of the most significant European directors. His debut was in 1965, in the omnibus Perličky na dnĕ, considered as a manifesto for the new generation of Czechoslovak filmmakers and his first ‘meeting’ with Hrabal’s work. His last appearance in a feature film was, as main charachter, in the 2018 Slovak film Tlumočník (The Interpreter) by Martin Šulík, screened also at the Trieste FF in 2019. Menzel passed away on September 2020 in Prague. The Trieste FF presented all his Hrabal adaptations in 2006, on the occasion of “Bohumil Hrabal. The Cinema at the Bottom” homage and, in 2011, invited Manzel to hold a masterclass.

filmografia scelta / selected filmography

1965 Smrt pana Baltazara, episodio del film / episode from the film Perličky na dně (Perline sul fondo / Pearls of the Deep) diretto con / directed with Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jan Němec, Evald Schorm 1966 Ostře sledované vlaky (Treni strettamente sorvegliati / Closely Watched Trains); Premi / Awards: Oscar come Miglior film in lingua straniera / Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1969-1990 Skřivánci na niti (Allodole sul filo / Skylarks on a String) uscito nel / released in 1990; Premi / Awards: Berlino – Orso d’oro / Berlin – Golden Bear 1978 Báječní muži s klikou (I magnifici uomini con la manovella) 1980 Postřižiny (Ritagli / Cutting It Short) 1983 Slavnosti sněženek (The Snowdrop Festival) 1985 Vesničko má středisková (My Sweet Little Village) 1994 Život a neobyčejná dobrodružství vojáka Ivana Čonkina (La vita e le straordinarie avventure del soldato semplice Ivan Čonkin / The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin) 2002 Chvilka (episodio di / episode of Ten Minutes Older: The Cello diretto con / directed with Bernardo Bertolucci, Claire Denis, Mike Figgis, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Radford, Volker Schlöndorff, István Szabó) 2006 Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (I Served the King of England / Ho servito il Re d’Inghilterra); Premi / Awards: Berlino – Premio FIPRESCI / Berlin – FIPRESCI Prize 2013 Donšajni

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