Toccata for Toy Trains

Toccata for Toy Trains is a 1957 short film by Charles and Ray Eames, one of several films (including Powers of Ten, made many years later) the husband-and-wife design team made during their career.[2] It was inspired by the gift of a toy locomotive given by Academy Award-winning director Billy Wilder.[3]

Toccata for Toy Trains
Directed byCharles Eames
Ray Eames
Produced byCharles Eames
Ray Eames
StarringCharles Eames
Music byElmer Bernstein
Production
company
Office of Charles & Ray Eames
Distributed byGeorge K. Arthur[1]
Release date
  • 1957 (1957)
Running time
14 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Toccata for Toy Trains is also the title of the instrumental music composed for the film by Elmer Bernstein,[4][5] a frequent collaborator on the Eames films.

Summary

The film features mostly antique toy trains moving within fanciful settings to a toccata. Other antique toys, such as dolls (representing passengers and townspeople), automobiles and horse-drawn carriages are featured.

Most of the toys come from a mix of museum and private collections, including that of the Museum of the City of New York, and apparently date from before the 1920s. The film is shot from a toy's-eye-view, as if the viewer is following the journey of trains from two cities, beginning with the busy activity of the departure train station and surrounding downtown neighborhood, traveling across the countryside, and ending with trains pulling into the arrival station.

A short opening narration by Charles Eames, set in a roundhouse, extols the design merits of toys, especially antique toys, with their "direct and unembarrassed manner", versus scale models. Eames says the modern era has lost the art of toymaking in the attempt to have "a perfect little copy of the real thing".

Accolades
  • Edinburgh International Film Festival Award, 1957
  • Seventh Melbourne Film Festival Award, 1958
  • American Film Festival Award, 1959
  • Scholastic Teachers’ 11th Annual Film Award, 1960

See also

References
  1. Educational screen & audio-visual guide. Chicago, Ill. : Educational Screen Inc. 1971. p. 247. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  2. The Eames Legend Of Spare Simplicity - The Washington Post
  3. Eames: The Architect and the Painter and Toccata for Toy Trains, Sunday, Nov 11, 2018, 1:00pm : Indiana University Cinema
  4. Toccata for Toy Trains: Prologue, Variations, Journey, Village, Fantasy, Journey's End by Elmer Bernstein - Topic on YouTube
  5. SoundtrackCollector.com
  • "Toccata for Toy Trains" in The Films of Charles & Ray Eames (Volume 2). Image Entertainment, 2005. ASIN B0009S2K92
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