Saw Closely Watched Trains, a sort of slice-of-life comedy about a boy who goes to work at a train yard in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The film satirically juxtaposes glorious, martial songs against shoe-less soldiers, pigeons, sleeping dogs. The film is a comedy but, due to time and distance, does not really work well as a comedy. The comedy that I picked up on was alternately baudy, involving prostitutes and jilted men, or dry and absurdist. Not un-funny but not terribly entertaining. I found the life-or-death consequences of lifetime to work more effectively as a means of comedy. A boy is trying to kiss a girl but a bomb explodes. Now that's comedy!
The film keeps returning to the theme of humans ruining bureaucracy. This can be seen as a microcosm of the struggle against authoritarian fascism. Indeed, a sabotage scheme is a subplot of the film. The boy himself is naive and prone to blurting out embarrassing secrets, not realizing that they are secrets. As the film progresses, we get to see him "come of age" and enter into the same corruption that so shocked him before. This is portrayed as somewhat dismal, but only somewhat. By the time we reach that point of the film, we're firmly rooting for him to cheat the far-off fascists.
Not a bad film, bu not a gripping one either. It sort of felt like homework to me. Subtle but dry.
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