Tram

A tram driver goes through the same routine every day – she arrives for work while it’s still dark, she turns on the lights and sets off, picking up passengers on the same old tedious journey. One person is like the next – office workers in raincoats as grey as the sullen, overweight woman’s humdrum life. But the tram’s jerky movements on the uneven track, the power she exerts over the control lever, and the presence of so many men stir the woman’s imagination and the journey suddenly seems drab no longer; things even start to look rosy... Back at the tram terminal, it’s dusk again, but perhaps with the promise of a better future, or at least of a pleasant evening ahead. Thanks to the chosen stylisation, this surprisingly lascivious and sexually explicit film preserves the affability and warmth also found in Green Porno, Isabella Rossellini’s collection of stylised short films. Despite the presence of numerous phallic objects, the film retains its innocence, also through the use of retro music (especially appropriate for the stylisation of Tram) which was written for the Czech war drama Protector. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)