Imagine coming of age in a time when you are surrounded by sexual images. This Academy Award winning film can be the Czechoslovakian version of so many of the Judd Apatow films we see today.

Brilliantly photographed in black and white, it shows Milos (Václav Neckár) trying to become a man. His first opportunity with his girlfriend Masa (Jitka Bendová) ends in disaster and he attempts suicide. His doctor advises him to get a more experienced woman to teach him, so he goes on a quest to find one.

This all takes place during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, so there are many political overtones to the film. It is hilarious as Milos works at a train station where his coworker Hubicka (Josef Somr) doesn't seem to have problems getting action whenever he wants.

He does manage to arrange help for Milos, but tragedy strikes before he is able to use his new found knowledge with his girlfriend.

An excellent picture and a real funny story that manages to avoid the crudity of modern tales of the same sort.

I interpreted Jiří Menzel's "Ostře sledované vlaky" ("Closely Watched Trains" in English) as a parallel to the burgeoning sexual revolution in the West. Václav Neckář's guard in the train station in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia has the hots for Jitka Bendová's conductor and they have an awkward experience at first. This was no doubt a risky thing to show in the Eastern Bloc, since the governments there tended to suppress all displays of sexuality in popular media (it wasn't until 1988 that a Soviet movie featured a sex scene).

This movie is well known as an important addition to the Czechoslovak New Wave of the 1960s. Like "The Shop on Main Street", it looks at how people tried to live their own lives amid the occupation. Both movies went on to win Best Foreign Language Film. They both deserved it. With their simply plots, they contrast sharply with epics like "The Great Escape" (which I understand played fast and loose with the story). I hope to see more products of the Czechoslovak New Wave. I understand that Miloš Forman (later to become famous for "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus") was one of the leaders of this genre.

An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Closely Watched Trains "as expert and moving in its way as was Jan Kadar's and Elmar Klos's 'The Shop on Main Street' or Milos Forman's 'Loves of a Blonde'," two roughly contemporary films from Czechoslovakia.

Indeed, the so-called Czech New Wave really deserves more praise. Foreign film all too often means French or Italian, possibly German. But the Czechs made some spectacular films in the 1960s (and I am sure they are still making some today). Why do some names, like Fellini or Godard, get to be huge in the history of film, but no Czech names have that honor?