Regen

Images of Amsterdam. Dark clouds gather. It starts raining. The first drops fall in the canal. The water flows down the roof-tiles into the gutter. The rain makes patterns on a tram window. Amsterdam people put up their umbrellas. Little children take cover under their mother's umbrella. The rainwater makes an oily film on the asphalt. The rain stops. Normal city-life is resumed. RAIN became a classic among the avant-garde films of the twenties. The simple theme of a big city before, during, and after a shower was developed into a lyrical film poem by Mannus Franken and Joris Ivens. Ivens never went out without his Kinamo handcamera, but in spite of this the shootings for the film took almost nine months because - notwithstanding the Dutch climate - it would not rain sufficiently...