The Bridge (1927-28) - Joris Ivens

The work of Joris Ivens still remains relatively obscure and hard to find, but that is changing just a little. The Bridge was one of his earliest films, an abstract study of an iron bridge in Rotterdam. Ivens uses graceful dissolves a varying editing pace and a great deal of montage principles to construct the picture. Through the mechanical movements of the bridge, the raising and lowering, and eventual crossing by a train give the film something of a plotline, albeit in a very simplistic manner. It did however set to establish Ivens as not just an experimental figure but one of non-fiction, and one who undoubtedly was drawn to the outdoors and marvels of modern man.