Both plaintive and wistful, Rain is “one of the last great silent films” (Georges Sadoul) and one of the foremost examples of visual poetry. It took Ivens two years and many rainstorms to gather the footage for this film of dappling light and succulent raindrops. An intimate impressionism lends the film a light melancholia—one that intermittent rainfall can naturally induce. As the pitter-patter on Amsterdam rooftops rhymes with the umbrellas of passerby below, Rain’s thoughtful, supple formalism radiates a shifting, prismatic mood (from gloom to glee and back again).

Rated G