ABSTRACT
De Brug is a short silent film about the Koningshavenbrug in Rotterdam, a railroad lift bridge built between 1925 and 1927 that was also known as De Hef. An icon of the Dutch avant-garde, it consolidated the international fame of Joris Ivens. A lyrical and abstract study, the film presents the bridge as a machine and as a masterpiece of modern engineering, and it highlights the motion of, on, and around the steel construction. Within this mini-narrative, he explores De Hef from multiple perspectives, using extreme high and low angles, thus emphasizing a modern perception of fragmentation and re-composition. In a self-reflexive mode, Ivens integrates images of his 35mm Kinamo camera and himself at the beginning of the film. Ivens' film celebrates an urban-industrial Machine Age aesthetic through the encounter of two pieces of modern technology in the city of Rotterdam: De Hef and the motion.
