Short film
Rain
Regen
Joris Ivens · 1929
Synopsis
A downpour over Amsterdam, from the first cloud to the return of the sun: drops on the canals, umbrellas opening, windowpanes, trams, gleaming cobbles. The film follows the storm from start to finish, as if it fell in a single day and were watched from every point in the city at once. There is neither story nor character, only a city transformed by the rain.
Context
It took its author two years, camera in hand, to gather enough showers and give the illusion of a single one, seen from everywhere at once. The film is credited jointly with Mannus Franken and was shown on 14 December 1929 at De Uitkijk, the hall of the Amsterdam film league. Silent originally, it received in 1932 a score by Lou Lichtveld, for a sound version edited by Helen van Dongen; in 1941, Hanns Eisler in turn drew a composition from it.
Who it is for
Twelve silent minutes, in black and white, with no story or speech. It helps to know that the music sometimes heard over it was added three years after the shooting.
Prizes and reception
A classic of the poetic documentary and of the city symphony; included in 2007 in the Canon of Dutch Cinema, which has only sixteen titles.