Night On The Galactic Railroad:
It’s hard to know where to begin with this one. My parents showed it to me as a kid, maybe because there is a giant glowing cross at 42 minutes… even back then, there was something in its ponderous pacing which said to me this is not like other object lessons.. It’s a story about loss; that’s what I remember first thinking. Fantastical, but also satisfying in that it dealt with a topic gravely concerning to five-year-old me.
It’s funny how some works can say one thing, then five years later something different, ten years later different again, fifteen, etc.
Loss is only the tip of the iceberg.
Machines are a major theme throughout; clocks, which are used to represent wonder at the universe (space) also draw attention to the out-of-control-ness of existence (we are all confined to move at 1 second per second). Giovanni’s life is out of control. He is marginalized, bullied, forced to do the work of an adult (how old is he?). Printing machines are the loudest sound we here at his place of work, where he sets type. A buzzing light goes out over the path on his way to get milk. There is of course the train, the sound of whose wheels on the track forms a kind of percussive music for a good part of the movie. Railroad lavishes these events with time, drawing attention to them.
Music is also a theme (the Centaurus festival, the hymn sung on the Titanic), as are metaphors (oil floating on milk, clocks to describe the expansiveness of the universe, the train, the black hole, cranes, stars).
The cats are also interesting… cats. A creature that has nine lives, and lives for a fraction of the time humans do. This seems to be a nod toward our ephemeral nature. In a story that deals with ultimate destiny, it would be too… heavy?.. if it were rendered with people. Perhaps a child watching would draw a connection with a lost pet, however.
Religion and friendship are antagonist and protagonist, the tension between them played out until the film’s end. Religion is viewed through the eyes of an outsider… Giovanni and Campanella view the Cross through the window of a moving train. It is an Answer but not their Answer. Later on, Giovanni learns the legend of Scorpio from one of three passengers who drowned on the Titanic: the only humans we meet. This becomes his answer; choosing friendship over salvation in promising to follow Campanella into the coal sack.
Toward the beginning of the film, the classroom scene harks to Jesus’ silence before his accusers; both Giovanni and Campanella know the answer but refuse to give it, remaining silent instead. Why? Perhaps Giovanni fell asleep because he was tired and was caught off guard, and Campanella chose to refrain to avoid upstaging his friend. This is Zanelli’s interpretation. However, it’s also speaking to the ineffable; some things cannot be named or contained in trite answers.
It’s a movie that works best as a series of impressions. It’s ponderous, perhaps tragic, but it is also incredibly optimistic. It’s like Dante’s Inferno, if Inferno were written for… who is this movie’s target audience?
