Closely Watched Trains (1966)

Václav Neckár: Milos Hrma

Photos 

Quotes 

• Milos Hrma : I'm Milos Hrma. I slit my wrists because they said I suffer from premature ejaculation. Actually I wilted like a lily, but I really am a man.

• [first lines] 

  Milos Hrma : My name is Milos Hrma. People used to laugh at me, since Hrma means 'mound of Venus.' Still our family was famous. My great-grandfather Lukás was a drummer boy in 1848 and fought in the battle on Charles Bridge in Prague. The students threw cobblestones at the soldiers and broke great-grandpa's leg, so he got a pension out of it. One gulden per day. From then on all he did was buying a bottle of rum and a pouch of tobacco every day.

• Milos Hrma : Great grandfather Lukas instead of staying home he went to see the workers and made fun of hard working men, so every year grandpa Lukas would get beat somewhere. And in 1930 great grandfather boasted in front of stone cutters whose quarry had just been closed and they beat him so badly he died.

• Milos Hrma : I cut myself off from the past entirely. Just like that.

• Milos Hrma : I completed my training to be a railroad dispatcher and everyone in town knows my only goal is to keep the family tradition and do nothing except stand around on the platform with a signal disc while they spend their whole lives working themselves to the bone.

• Milos Hrma : Dr. Brabec said I should find an older woman to train me. I thought you might know someone.

  Max : I'm sorry, Milos. You're on your own.

  Milos Hrma : What about your wife?

  Max : Now hold on there. My wife is mine!

  Milos Hrma : No, I just thought maybe she could give me some advice.

• Milos Hrma : My father retired at age 48 as a locomotive engineer. The populace is mad with envy, since he's still healthy and can live off his pension for the next 20 or 30 years without doing a thing.

• Milos Hrma : Now I know why your Mom didn't want you to work with your Uncle.

  Mása : He's a lech; but, he's all right.

• Milos Hrma : So, you see, Doctor, I'm not a real man and I don't want to be. Everything in life is so hard for me and for everyone else it's like child's play. Basically, when it came down to it, I wilted like a lily.

  Dr. Brabec : You're healthy as an ox. Maybe too healthy. When a young man's too healthy he can suffer from premature ejaculation. I had it too. It's just nerves. You're overly sensitive. These are natural, normal things. You need to be matter-of-fact about it.

• Milos Hrma : So now we have our own closely watched train to watch.