The Bridge

1928 Documentary 11 minutes Directed by Joris Ivens

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About The Bridge

Joris Ivens films the Koningshaven Bridge in Rotterdam, the vertical-lift railway span called De Hef. The middle section rises for ships and drops for trains. Close views of counterweights, gears, and the men who run them sit next to long shots of steam trains and the river traffic under the span.

Cast & crew

More about The Bridge

Ivens directed, photographed, and cut it. Sybold van Ravesteyn, an architect at the Dutch Railways and a member of the Filmliga, got him onto the bridge. He climbed it over several months and shot on lunch breaks with a hand camera. A listing gives 11 minutes. An Archive.org copy runs 15 minutes 30 seconds. The Dutch title is De brug.

Themes

  • A lift span for trains and ships
  • Gears and counterweights
  • Angles chosen on a lunch break
  • De Hef
  • Koningshaven Bridge
  • Rotterdam
  • Joris Ivens
  • railway
  • lift bridge

Background

The Filmliga, with branches in several Dutch cities, included architects. Van Ravesteyn was the member who opened the railway bridge to the camera.

Making

Ivens treated one lift bridge as a set of motions to be matched in the cut. He looked for angles on his own lunch hour.

Reviews

In a 1931 monograph L. J. Jordaan wrote that De brug shows the strictest economy and, at the same time, complete artistic freedom.

Look

Ivens shot it himself, from the structure, looking for what he called expressive angles.

Preservation

Eye Film Institute holds a screening copy. A nitrate print from the Museum of Modern Art was conserved.

Notes

  • Ivens called the bridge a laboratory of movements, tones, shapes, contrasts, rhythms, and the relations between them.
  • Germaine Krull photographed him at work. Van Ravesteyn turned those pictures into a collage for the cover of Filmliga, 1928, issue 11.
  • The span was new when he filmed it. Trains use the deck. Ships pass when the lift is up.
  • L. J. Jordaan wrote about it in a 1931 monograph.

Scenes

  • The center span rises and a ship goes through.
  • A train crosses the deck after the span is down.
  • Counterweights and gears fill the frame.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (DeBrug)
  • Eye Film Institute Netherlands

Quotes

A laboratory of movements, tones, shapes, contrasts, rhythms, and the relations between all of these.