Secret Cinema (SC): News

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#4 Pill of the Month: Trains

Trains in movies captured the imagination of movie viewers for decades. This month a Cinephile selection of the most interesting train-set cinema.

This is not a finished list and its intention is to grow. So feel free to expand it by subscribing to the collage at the end of the post. That way it shows on the torrent page.

Cinephile Picks

**** wrote:

Runaway Train (1985)
Based around a screenplay written by the legendary Akira Kurosawa with an excellent cast including John Voight at its best. A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape a maximum security prison only to find themselves on a unmanned train with the brakes burned off. Intense and visceral prison scenes combined with scenes from the inside of the train and the cold world outside accompanied by a compelling soundtrack will make this film an experience not easily forgotten.

wrote:

High Noon (1952)
Based on screen-time alone, the train does not feature prominently in 'High Noon'. It only appears for a few seconds and then vanishes. But the entire film revolves around its arrival and the cargo it carries: a vicious outlaw released from jail is on the noon train headed for a small town, where he intends to avenge the Marshall who had put him there. Refusing his wife's plea to flee the town, the Marshall attempts to round up a group of townspeople who will join him in standing up to the outlaw and his gang. Indeed, 'High Noon' is not your ordinary Western: rather than focusing on the encounter between lawmen and outlaws, it focuses on the relationship between lawmen and their communities. Will ordinary people rise up against evil when needed, or will they let it glide back into their lives?

wrote:

Hobo (1992)
Trains? Lemme tell you about trains. "A hobo works and wanders, a tramp dreams and wanders, and a bum drinks and wanders." There's no work left, dreamers are more hated than ever, and who the hell can afford to drink? Pick a hobo name and ride the down the rails with Bear-Grease. Learn the difference between high line and low line, hot shots and hot yards, why Mission food is a good thing, when to be Larry because of the bulls, dream jobs in Korea, Yugoslavian flare cuisine, and other stuff, you know, wherever the mind wanders.

wrote:

Shoah (1985)
What a train can represent? Is it the movement of life that carries a man through the time? May it be the millstones of fate that leads a man to the unavoidable death? Or is it the corrupted artificial imitation of doom that make man's life short and dirty? But what if the train represents itself and all the metaphors are just our attempts to find the meaning in the history? Try to find any yourself.

wrote:

Rheingold (1978)
Germany, 1977. The Trans-European express "Rhine Gold" (Rheingold) travels from the Netherlands to Switzerland along the banks of the Rhine. In the train, a drama takes place between Elizabeth Drossbach, her husband and her lover (the waiter). The train plunges further into the storm of myths and legends, which still conceal a fatal danger.

wrote:

Trances (1982)
A long journey of one and a half hours. First by car on snow-covered mountain highways, then by train. The road is the same everywhere, despite the fact that the author shot his film in Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Hungary. The road is the same: the tapping of the wagon wheels, the endless landscape outside the window (it changes: these are mountains or river valleys, but our eyes get tired of them quickly), stations. Infinite movement on a black and white film, reminiscent of the journeys of James Benning, Ben Rivers and Chantal Ackerman. Calm and movement.