''Toccata for Toy Trains'' is a
1957
1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...
short film by
Charles and Ray Eames, one of several films (including ''
Powers of Ten
A power of 10 is any of the integer exponentiation, powers of the number 10 (number), ten; in other words, ten multiplication, multiplied by itself a certain number of times (when the power is a positive integer). By definition, the number one is ...
'', made many years later) the husband-and-wife design team made during their career. It was inspired by the gift of a toy locomotive given by
Academy Award-winning director
Billy Wilder.
''Toccata for Toy Trains'' is also the title of the instrumental music composed for the film by
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 origi ...
,
SoundtrackCollector.com
/ref> 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 model
A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...
s. 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
* List of American films of 1957
References
* "Toccata for Toy Trains" in ''The Films of Charles & Ray Eames'' (Volume 2). Image Entertainment, 2005.
External links
*
*
Official website
- Eames Office
''Toccata for Toy Trains'' program note
from the 1957 San Francisco International Film Festival
{{Charles and Ray Eames
1957 films
1950s short documentary films
1957 short films
American documentary films
Toy trains
Rail transport films
Films directed by Charles and Ray Eames
Films scored by Elmer Bernstein
1957 documentary films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films
English-language documentary films