In the breathtaking opening sequence of RAILS, two lovers walk a fine line between life and death in a hotel near a railroad. From that moment forward, the film offers us everything: Soviet-style montage, a rich texture of German expressionism, nationalist propaganda, the intimacy of post-WWII neorealism, and the most unlikely of all love stories. It’s the last great silent film produced in Italy (it was also released with a music soundtrack, against the will of its director), a synthesis of the best European cinema of the period and the unfulfilled promise of film as art under a Fascist regime.