Seven Samurai (1954)
As with everything else that appears in films, rain can either just be there or it can mean something. In Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese 1976) it is what Travis Bickle hopes to become, something that washes away all the filth and garbage. In Lean's A Passage to India (1984), big, heavy raindrops start to fall on the dirty ceiling windows when Dr. Aziz is cleared from all charges of rape, washing away the lies and the rumours. In Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982) and Se7en (David Fincher 1995), the constant rain instead signifies the rotten and corrupt state of the nation (or perhaps mankind). It also sets the mood for when bad things happen. An assassination of a statesman in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940), the killer disappearing in a flock of umbrellas, or another killing, barely visible in the pouring rain, that opens the thriller The Mob (Robert Parrish 1951).
In Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger 1947) Mr. Dean says at the beginning that he will give the nuns until the rain comes and for sure, in the last scene, as the nuns abandon the convent, the rain starts to fall. As the title of Robert Mulligan's exquisitely photographed film (shot by Ernest Laszlo) has it, Baby, the Rain Must Fall (1965). Exquisitely photographed is also Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes 2002), by Conrad Hall of course, and the rain pours there too.
When American cinematographers a decade or so ago voted for the best photographed film of all times another film shot by Conrad Hall won, In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks 1967), and the scene several mentioned was the one where one of the killers is standing by a window on which it rains and the water running down the window is reflected on his face, making it look like he is crying. Some ten years earlier Hasse Ekman, working with cinematographer Sven Nykvist, did something even more elaborate in Egen ingång (Private Entrance 1956) when the feverish main character, played by Maj-Britt Nilsson, is lying in bed and the water on the window makes it look as if she is drenched.
Rain can also be a joyous occasion. Gene Kelly, as Don Lockwood, sings in it, and Durga, Apu's sister, dances in it in Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray 1955). Sometimes it is the setting for a great kiss, as in Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards 1961). But that is less common. It is more likely to appear, as in For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone 1965), when a killer comes to town.
And, as it happens, the best of Joris Ivens's early short films is called Regen (1929), the Dutch word for rain. Here it is:
----------------------------
The subject of rain was not randomly chosen by me but one of those challenges that I have done before from a group of Swedish film bloggers. Here are the others who wrote about rain:
The Velvet Café is in English, the rest in Swedish: Rörliga bilder och tryckta ord, Fiffis filmtajm, Jojjenito, Fripps filmrevyer, Har du inte sett den, Mackan.
One final treat, the trailer for Robert Hamer's excellent It Always Rains on Sunday (1947).
One final treat, the trailer for Robert Hamer's excellent It Always Rains on Sunday (1947).
Excellent intro, naturally. It's Kurosawa after all. If I had had the time I would have loved to go through his movies, hunting for rain. The Quiet Duel of course, but I seem to remember quite a lot of raining in either The Idiot (more snow there, no?) or No Regrets for Our Youth as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd windswept forests, ominous clouds and a sky that looks like it is the end of times.
DeleteRashomon, I haven´t seen it - yet. I think I wait until an extremely rainy day, then it might feel like I´m drowning in the couch, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's a challenge for all senses.
DeleteGreat piece Fredrik. I have seen some of the films you bring up and they all fit the bill. Rashomon I included in my Decades project and it is one of the first films I now think about when rain on films come up.
ReplyDeleteThe last scene in Blade runner is of course my all time favourite when it comes to rainy scenes. But I also get very curious about In cold blood and Egen ingång. I always thought that they used a similar effect in the titles sequence for the tv-series True detective (season 1) with Woody Harrelson's face where it looks like he is crying.
Thanks! It is used now and then. I wonder if Curtiz didn't use it in Casablanca, although I'm not sure.
DeleteSven Nykvist + Hasse Ekman = Egen ingång (Private Entrance). Oh, that's a film I need to see. Thanks for the rainy tip. :)
ReplyDeleteI might be one of few people who actually likes that film (then again I might also be one of few people who have actually seen it). Except for an annoying voice-over it is a fine film, tragic and expressive.
Delete