Tickets (2005) User Reviews

Human Spirit

[guyhigby · 7/10 · 27 October 2006]

I found myself waiting for something to happen. The first two stories were interesting but not dramatic. The scientist attracted our sympathy because of his humble, dejected air, while his infatuation with his blonde acquaintance - well, I'm sure that many of us have been there. The action which resonated beyond that train was the provision of milk for the baby - such a spontaneous, warm gesture. We then sympathized with the carer who was tired of being bossed around, but this little drama was hardly earth-shattering.

At last, Ken Loach made me respond in a really positive way. The meaning of a train ticket was so different to the two groups of people - important to one group, almost as significant as life itself to the other. And the first group was able to see this. Where the hearts of the viewers went, so did the hearts of those football supporters. Our common human spirit triumphed. What a warm, uplifting message this was.

Thank God for Ken Loach

[DC1977 · 6/10 · 30 December 2010]

And thank God that his segment was last because it rescued what until then had been a dull, pointless film.

If his piece had been set at the start of the train journey, the other two sections would have seemed even more disappointing and excruciating.

I've always admired the way Loach has continued to use cinema as a means of social commentary. I don't always agree with his message particularly when it is surprisingly naive and unfounded (Bread and Roses being a prime example) but his films are always worth seeing.

Thankfully, his piece about a trio of Celtic fans travelling to Rome is the standout in this film in the same way as his contribution had been to 11'09''01 - September 11.

What had gone before it was pretty dire. First of all, there had been the story of a Roy Scheider lookalike Professor and a PR lady who inexplicably has the hots for him.

As he is about to board the train, he says to her that they have never met before even though she was with him earlier and booked the tickets! Maybe there was something going on there that I missed...

The next section involved an incredibly annoying old battle-axe, a General's widow, a man on community service who accompanies her and a whole series of boring, pointless discussions and encounters. One such encounter was between the man and a 14 year old girl he had known several years earlier that made me worry a little about where it was going.

In fact, it didn't lead anywhere at all; it was as tedious and unnecessary as the rest of that story.

Loach's work isn't one of his best but it was good enough to improve something that was pretty dreadful and leave us with a mediocre film that ended on a high note.

I would recommend skipping the first two stories altogether and just watch Loach's instead. Everything that went before it is really not worth the bother.

Abbas Kiarostami,Ermanno Olmi and Ken Loach team up to depict their visions on human strengths and weaknesses !!!!

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 8/10 · 21 July 2015]

The image of trains come to mind when one is talking about the most annoying means of transport.This has a lot to do with the fact that one cannot travel in trains without being disturbed by other passengers.This can be true about other means of transport such as airplane,bus or ship.However,there are enough damage control mechanisms on these modes of transport which enable passengers to face minimum amount of disturbance.No mechanism for eliminating disturbance can be found on trains as they are the cheapest means of transport.For this reason, traveling by trains is like inviting trouble before,during and after the journey.Trouble is also something one can find in abundance in 'Tickets' directed by three giants of three different film producing countries.They have directed three stories where viewers can experience longing for love,compassion and indifference.Lastly,'Tickets' would turn out to be a good learning experience for all those viewers who combine entertainment with a serious message.

Train stories...

[olympia993 · 20 February 2007]

Tickets deals with three different visions on a train journey, following three different stories that in fact interact with each other. The first part of the movie could be quite boring if you consider that there are too many symbols, too many voice-over, and not enough action. But the whole story is well-written and has a real narrative force. The second story is also full of symbols...this old woman seems to carrie a burden...we feel her despair and sadness. The young man who accompanies her, does not say much...but rather show his feeling through his acts...and this will explain his final decision... I especially liked the third story, dealing with the three Scottish Guys and the refugee family...i won't tell too much.

This is a good movie.

Three directors and three stories

[Red-125 · 7/10 · 10 March 2020]

Tickets (2005) was directed by Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, and Ermanno Olmi. Olmi and Kiarostami also wrote the screenplay.

Almost the entire film takes place on a train to Rome. Each director presumably directed one of the three short films that make up the movie. There are, indeed, three plots, but the same characters appear in all of the three movies. Sometimes they're protagonists, sometimes you barely glimpse them.

Ken Loach certainly directed the third segment, about three working-class English guys who are on their way to a major football (soccer) event. I couldn't tell which of the other two directors directed which of the other two segments.

The Loach segment will tug at your heartstrings, but I thought the first segment, which was the simplest, worked best. In that segment, a scientist (Carlo Delle Piane) is helped to get home by an employee of the firm for which he consults. The employee, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, is very solicitous. That's her job, and she does it well. However, the scientist daydreams about the young woman throughout the trip. We can see that there's no real basis for his daydreams, but apparently he cannot see this.

It's an interesting concept to have three great directors combining to make one movie. However, for me, it didn't really work. It's not a bad film, but I don't think it's good enough to seek out and view. The movie has an IMDb rating of 7.0, and I agree. I gave it a rating of 7.

Three stories of human interaction aboard a single train trip from Eastern Europe to Rome.

[tharley · 9/10 · 26 September 2005]

Throughout the twentieth century, critics and filmmakers alike have often commented upon the interactive relationship between transit and cinema, interpreting train travel as a visual metaphor which fuses these notions together. In "Tickets", a film which unites three famous 'auteurs' of contemporary cinema- Abbas Kiarostami, Ermanno Olmi and Ken Loach- three narratives of differing cultural sensibilities are intertwined within a single journey aboard a train from Eastern Europe to Rome. Although there are noticeable shifts between the narratives of each of the directors, particularly if you have already seen some of their previous films, the individual signatures of each director create a unique tripartite and structure that breathes life into the complex human interactions experienced whilst on the journey.

It can be said that aesthetically trains provide confined moving spaces, which Einstein would suggest, are only relative to our perceptions. While the relationships between the characters in "Tickets" are often utterly separate, from a lonely professor dreaming of love to three Celtic soccer fans on their way to a Champions League game, by occupying the same social space the characters are intrinsically linked to one another. In this vein, the film adopts a particularly European sentiment that is closely associated with the emergence of the European Union. Yet, to imply that this theme resonates in a dominant manner throughout the film is incorrect. Rather, this an intensely beautiful film bound by a shared ability of the directors to convey the emotional subtleties and internal perceptions of the various characters, all of which are, whilst aboard the same train, ultimately traveling in different directions. For this reason, "Tickets" is a rewarding film that allows you to think outside the exaggerated and distorted realities imposed by many films today. It certainly is worth a ticket!

9/10

One train. Three directors. Three caricatures of train travel in Europe.

[rasecz · 9/10 · 20 March 2007]

An overnight Trenitalia Intercity train from Innsbruck to Rome is the venue for three short stories that happen on the same journey.

(1) An Italian bio-pharma professor returning from a day-long meeting in Austria is unable to use airline tickets to fly back to Rome and instead is forced to return by train. It's night and the train leaves Innsbruck. A scrambled time-line, surreal elements and the most exaggerated caricature.

(2) A young man and a general's wife -- an impertinent woman -- travel in first class with second class tickets. Straight narrative, filled with little episodes, and the most humorous.

(3) Three Scottish lads clad in white-green soccer fan T-shirts en route to Rome to attend a game are faced with the loss of one of their train tickets. Straight narrative and a view on the multi-cultural crosscurrents of Europe. It's daytime and the film closes with the train's arrival at Rome's Termini station.

In the confined and crowded linear space of passenger trains, secondary characters bump into each other and that helps stitch the stories loosely together. Of those, members of an Albanian immigrant family --Roma gypsies? -- play parts in the first and third.

Don't go looking for a strong narrative backbone. Instead take this film for what it really is, a caricature of train travel in Europe. Think in terms of vignettes: examples of the myriad situations that one may observe when travelling by train in the EU. The film is a sampler of those situations, but a concentrated one. Take it is a primer if you have not visited there. Buy your ticket and enjoy the ride.

A Moving Epiphany

[SandyBates · 9/10 · 5 October 2006]

This is a superb film, with a pattern and texture closely resembling that of other films by part-director Kiarostami, in that the emotional content of events are low-key throughout, until toward the end of the film, when something gives. Here, it is the work of Loach which provides the great triumphal moment at the end, when the basic goodness of human nature is confirmed by the selfless act of the three Celtic fans in giving up a train ticket to a needy family of Albanian refugees.. but perhaps the greatest affirmation comes right at the very end of this sequence, which has to be seen to be truly understood. This is a magnificent film which grows on you by degrees as you watch it.

Not quite impressive

[prithwi-banerjee · 5/10 · 24 January 2016]

Seems like Ticket didn't quite turn up to be quite a hell of a ride for me. If a Cinephile wants to see a good Journey film there are better options than this. I was awaiting to see this for a very long time and when i eventually viewed it was a disappointing watch. The settings and the characters are quite believable but the dialogues i mean common we do expect a lot especially when an Kiarostami, Olmi and a Loach is directing a film. There are far superior films than (Tickets) which involves Train Journey's that has been made by film directors and the one film that immediately stuck my mind is Nayak (1966) one just have to look for it.

A nice find!

[Alba_Of_Smeg · 14 September 2020]

I put this on not having a clue what to expect and what a pleasant surprise it was. 1 train trip to Rome, 3 different directors, 3 different stories, and an intertwining passenger cast.

Part 1 - Ermanno Olmi. Part 2 - Abbas Kiarostami. Part 3 - Ken Loach.

1, The way everyone's eyes fixate and follow anyone making a noise on the train really gave me anxiety.

2, I found the second part more interesting. It gets you thinking a bit and had me feel pretty judgmental by the end.

3, This chapter was my favourite. Simple, effective and a good way to end the film.

Heart warming

[raveeshgupta · 9/10 · 4 December 2009]

There are three stories, connected very loosely, if at all. One professor day dreams about a date with an acquaintance he has made before the journey, and also serves as the kind uncle to poor kid whose formula has been spilt by a really rude, and may I say heartless, Army Officer. Then there are the General's widow and her much abused helper. the lady insists on being rude with everybody - reminds you of some people you meet on trains. The final story is of three Celtic fans on a trip to UCL match vs AS Roma, and a pack of Albanian refugees. The first story tickles your heart. The second story is the reason I gave it a 9 and not a 10. The third story reaffirms your faith in humanity - not in some loud way, but in the common man sense - the sort of humanity that is expected from the guy next door. A good watch, over all.

Feels like what it is-a long train journey without a book

[raptorcmg · 2/10 · 14 December 2005]

When I first started watching this movie I was looking for some kind of subtle metaphors but it soon dawned on me that this movie was indeed about people on a train. The interactions between people are like those you can see any day on the street and when in occasion there is a slightly more interesting situation the dialogue becomes stilted and boring. Its not that I don't get how this film is trying to portray the way people interact, it's just that in this film they are very boring. If you want to see and analyse these kinds of relationships you'd be best to actually go out and buy a train ticket and look at the people on the train with you. It is realistic but you wouldn't go to a movie to watch a film about you sitting there watching the movie.

Not QUITE The Ticket

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 6 December 2005]

Alas, I have to disagree with the only other poster's academic quasi socio-economic reading and declare this a disappointment. On the other hand knowing that Ken Loach was one of the three directors involved I was prepared to be clubbed over the head with his Left-Wing fanaticism and I also knew that Valeria Bruni Tedeschi - my main, if not only, reason for seeing the movie was in the first segment so I reasoned I could always walk out if I started gagging on Loach's preaching. As it is I stayed for all three segments and although the best thing for me was the close ups of Bruni Tedeschi's lovely face the other two segments though labored weren't too hard to take. I can't see this one generating much revenue apart from the Rent-A-Pseuds among whom Iranian movies are currently flavor of the month.