Closely Watched Trains (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #43 extract: Closely Watched Trains (1966)

Fascinatingly absurd, Closely Watched Trains appears to be a film about very little; a boy becomes an adult when he starts working, but struggles to lose his virginity and become a man when he falls for a girl. Light humour emerges from this film as our main character bumbles through sparse happenings, and such seems to signify this as a Czech New Wave picture. Stepping back from the film and seeing how relevant the looming presence of a Nazi occupation is as the story progresses, I'm struck by a wider picture of the coming-of-age tale, one which seems to have ties to the pressure and insanity of a world evolving with war and violence. 

Whilst Closely Watched Trains has captured my attention, I have to say that I'll need to see it another time to start to come to grips with it. Nonetheless, recommended.