Downpour Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Downpour Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 4, 2020

Note: This film is available as a part of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 3.

Martin Scorsese has been curating the World Cinema Project for around thirteen years now, and the result has been a veritable cornucopia of international films that in some cases Scorsese’s efforts have helped save from the ravages of time (and vinegar syndrome). As of the writing of this review, the World Cinema Project is closing in on fifty restorations that they’ve undertaken, allowing fans to view films that, as even Scorsese himself states in some of the introductions included in this set, have been woefully underappreciated and rarely seen (even a cineaste of Scorsese’s reputation mentions that some of these films were “new” to him courtesy of the World Cinema Project). This third volume of films aggregates six interesting offerings that have at least some subtextual cross connections at times, but which serve as yet another example of what an incredible job the World Cinema Project does in bringing films of undeniable merit to a wider audience.

Downpour offers perhaps the best evidence for the need of something like the World Cinema Project and its efforts to preserve and restore deserving films. This 1971 Iranian feature from Bahram Bayzai (who now teaches at Stanford, according to the introduction by Martin Scorsese included as a supplement) was evidently quite well received and popular upon its initial release, but when the political fortunes of that often troubled country changed with the so-called Islamic Revolution, the government evidently collected all known copies and/or elements of Downpour and had them destroyed. That left only Bayzai's own badly worn and damaged print, with burnt in English subtitles, as the sole element available from which to cull a restoration and high definition presentation. Considering what the restoration team evidently had to work with, the results are a bit of a miracle.

Downpour's story would hardly seem to be the stuff to cause umbrage by Ayatollahs and their acolytes, as it documents the life of a teacher named Hekmati (Parviz Fanizadeh) who arrives at a new town and new school to find the "locals" aren't especially welcoming (in an element that kind of echoes this film's "disc mate", Soleil Ô, albeit for manifestly different reasons). His charges, all adolescent boys, are a scrappy bunch, and Hekmati's interchanges with one of them leads to him meeting the boy's gorgeous older sister Atefeh (Parvaneh Massoumi), which then leads to further complications.

Downpour is surprisingly brisk and even (intentionally) funny at times, but there's definitely some subtext here of socioeconomic dysfunctions in Iran which no doubt led to the film being seized and destroyed. The film is a historical curiosity for any number of reasons, not just due to its production era but the concomitant (relative) freedom in its tone and even its depiction of women. As Scorsese mentions in his introduction, sometimes the oppressive efforts of authoritarian regimes can't completely silence critics, and in that regard it's probably not too cheeky to state that in the case of Downpour, when it rains discontent, it does indeed pour.

Downpour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Downpour is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Some opening text cards offer the following verbiage on the transfer:

This restoration has been made possible with the support of the World Cinema Project. Established in 2007 by Martin Scorsese, the World Cinema Project is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of endangered films representing diverse cultural heritage.

The source element for this restoration was a positive print with English subtitles provided by director Bahraim Beyzaie.

Since this is the only known surviving copy of the film — all other film sources were seized and presumed destroyed — the restoration required a considerable amount of both physical and digital repair.

The surviving print was badly damaged with scratches, perforation tears and mid-frame splices. Over 1500 hours of work were necessary to complete the restoration.

Considering what they had to work with, the restoration team assigned to this release has worked wonders. While there are occasional contrast issues, something that actually shows up mostly with regard to the inability to read some of the white subtitles against lighter backgrounds, for the most part this presentation offers secure blacks and well modulated gray scale. Detail levels are generally very good to excellent throughout. There are occasional fluctuations in clarity and grain structure, perhaps surprisingly there are no signs of huge damage, something that's remarkable given the comments of Scorsese and the comments in the text cards quoted above about the condition of the source print utilized.

Downpour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Downpour features an LPCM Mono track in the original Persian. The sound design of the film isn't overly ambitious, and as such the track provides more than capable support for both the dialogue as well as some of the natural sounds that permeate things when outdoor material is featured. Some of the clamor in the raucous classrooms (and even occasionally the teachers' lounge) is also well represented. As per the comments above, English subtitles are burnt in and can occasionally be a bit hard to make out against lighter backgrounds.

Downpour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Martin Scorsese Introduction (1080p; 2:42)


• Bahram Beyzaie (1080p; 29:48) features a 2020 interview with the director. In Persian with English subtitles.

Downpour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you watch the six films in this third volume of the World Cinema Project's releases "in order" (meaning as they're presented on the discs), Downpour may provide a bit of welcome "palette cleanser" after some of the more viscerally disturbing films that come before it. This is a rather sweet film in a lot of ways, offering a budding romance between a nerdy teacher and a put upon young woman, but it also has some trenchant commentary on the dysfunctions which were evidently rife in Iran at the time of the film's production and which probably ironically led to the revolution which in turn led to Downpour's subsequent "removal". Technical merits are surprisingly solid given the state of the source print. Recommended.