Durante l’occupazione tedesca della Cecoslovacchia, il vice aiuto-capostazione Milos deve subire le conseguenze di una sconveniente eiaculazione precoce. Messo in contatto con le bande partigiane, Milos incontrerà una ragazza che fa da staffetta presso la sua stazione e che saprà guarirlo dalla sindrome che lo affligge, ma il giorno successivo sarà l’ultimo della sua vita. (fonte: amazon)

Adapté du roman de l'écrivain tchèque Bohumil Hrabal, Trains étroitement surveillés est un film majeur de la cinématographie tchèque, incarnant la liberté insolente de jeunes créateurs qui émergent (Milos Forman, Vera Chytilova, Jan Kadar .) et d'une époque pleine d'espoir. Parmi les cent meilleurs films de tous les temps (Time) (fonte: Fnac)

In Cecoslovacchia durante la guerra, un adolescente viene assunto come vice aiuto-capostazione. Nonostante i terribili avvenimenti, il ragazzo pensa più che altro all'amore. L'iniziazione sessuale avviene con una bella partigiana che sta preparando un sabotaggio. Trascinato dall'entusiasmo, il giovane partecipa all'azione. E muore nell'impresa.

Milan Kundera, whose prose(and consequently whose thinking) I much admire, describes, on the back cover of the edition I recently found in a dusty old bookstore here in Manhattan Bohumil Hrabal’s Closely Observed Trains as “(o)ne of the most authentic incarnations of magical Prague; an incredible union of earthly humor and baroque imagination… What is unique about Hrabal is his capacity for joy.”

I would be hard-pressed to question Milan Kundera’s appreciation of literature. Instead—and as I’ve had ample experience with this kind of thing in the fairly recent past—I’ll question whether the translation is a good one.

Yes, I see Kundera’s point. And yes, my reading of Closely Observed Trains gave me flashbacks to my reading, once upon a time, of Michael Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. But other than a few lite-comic episodes juxtaposed with the standard brand of Nazi (read=atrocious) behavior, I found the going sluggish. I’m not Czech—and so, I may’ve missed something. But I lived long enough in Vienna and in and around Eastern Europe at one point to have made a fair acquaintance with that peculiar brand of humor. The numb-nuts mindset of the train personnel assigned to duty (and to their tiny ambitions) in the midst—and middle—of a continent in which world powers are trying to shoot, bomb and burn themselves into extinction naturally lends itself to a surrealistic approach to story-telling. I’m just not sure I get (or got) it.

RRB
12/31/12
Brooklyn, NY
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I liked it. Didn't think I would. Reminded me a bit of Robert Walser because of the narrator's childlike wonder of it all, except in this version, unlike the wandering and unlucky Walser, this hero gets laid. And in more ways than one. ( )