Trains have been a staple setting in cinema for nearly a century, providing the perfect backdrop for murder mysteries, love stories, and disaster films. The British Film Institute (BFI) has unveiled a season of train movies curated by Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. Film expert Amy Scott-Ringrow, a media production lecturer at Bournemouth University, explains why directors are drawn to locomotives.
Confinement and Timelessness
Scott-Ringrow highlights confinement as a key factor. "Characters can't escape," she says, citing Murder on the Orient Express as an iconic example. "You have characters where there's been a murder and they're in a confined environment, so there is no escape." The setting also distorts time: "Time almost stands still within that carriage, but the outside world keeps moving. When you're watching characters change in one setting, it's a really interesting thing in terms of scripting and pushing that story."
Familiarity and Blank Space
Everyone is familiar with trains, Scott-Ringrow notes. "A train is almost a blank space where people can project themselves onto it. Everyone has a different reason for being on that train. They're all going to potentially the same destination, but all have different reasons for being there. That’s something that can then be unpacked and explored."
Murder on the Orient Express
Scott-Ringrow picks Murder on the Orient Express as the most emblematic train movie. "It’s iconic. The train is literally in the title, and it is a completely iconic story. Murder mysteries lend themselves to the fact that all different walks of life are crammed into this place. You could almost take the train as the destination." The 1974 adaptation, directed by Sidney Lumet, starred Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot alongside an ensemble cast including Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman. Made on a budget of £1.4 million, it earned £19 million at the box office. Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Finney was nominated for Best Actor.
Snowpiercer: A Microcosm of Society
Another film on Ishiguro's list is Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho's 2013 thriller starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton. Scott-Ringrow says it uses the train as a "microcosm of society and all that's wrong with the world." She adds that the carriage can represent a "political subspace in society," where people on the same moving vehicle have completely different experiences. The film sold more than 9.3 million admissions in South Korea, becoming the fastest film to pass 4 million tickets, and was the most expensive production in the country's film history.
Classics and Hidden Gems
Ishiguro's list spans cinema history. Shanghai Express (1932), directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Ishiguro calls it "the mother of all train movies." The Lady Vanishes (1938), Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, earned him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, the only time he won an award for directing.
Ishiguro clarifies his definition of a train movie: "To be clear, a 'train movie' isn't one with just a memorable train sequence in the middle, still less one that happens to have 'train' or 'express' in its title. Unrequited love stories set on railway platforms aren't train movies; neither are those in which protagonists fight on train roofs or dangle precariously off the side. What follows are real train movies."
Notable Absentee: Bullet Train
Scott-Ringrow notes one notable omission: Bullet Train (2022), starring Brad Pitt. "It was filmed during Covid. They actually had to change how they filmed so much of that. They ended up filming it on a multi-camera set-up because they couldn't have many people around. I thought that was really interesting and must have been a challenging film to make. I enjoyed it, but it’s a film that’s supposed to be chaotic, and not make a lot of sense. So I’m not massively surprised it didn't make the list."
Kazuo Ishiguro's Top Ten Train Films
- Shanghai Express (1932) – Director: Josef von Sternberg. Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong. Won Best Cinematography Oscar, nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.
- Rome Express (1932) – Director: Walter Forde. Stars: Conrad Veidt, Esther Ralston. Won Best Foreign Film at the National Board of Review.
- The Lady Vanishes (1938) – Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave. Won New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director.
- Night Train (1959) – Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz. Stars: Lucyna Winnicka, Leon Niemczyk. Won Georges Méliès award and Best Foreign Actress at Venice.
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974) – Director: Sidney Lumet. Stars: Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman. Budget £1.4 million, box office £19 million. Bergman won Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
- Runaway Train (1985) – Director: Andrei Konchalovsky. Stars: Jon Voight, Eric Roberts. Based on a Kurosawa script, both actors nominated for Oscars.
- Tickets (2005) – Directors: Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach. Three stories on the same European train.
- Transsiberian (2008) – Director: Brad Anderson. Stars: Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley. Tense thriller on the famous route.
- Snowpiercer (2013) – Director: Bong Joon-ho. Stars: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton. Over 9.3 million admissions in South Korea, fastest to pass 4 million tickets.
- Compartment No. 6 (2021) – Director: Juho Kuosmanen. Stars: Seidi Haarla, Yuriy Borisov. Won Cannes Grand Prix.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Top Ten Train Films is at BFI Southbank until July 31.
