Under the Bridges (1946) User Reviews

A Timeless Film From a Terrible Time and Place

[gvb0907 · 7/10 · 12 September 2000]

"Under the Bridges", made in the last year of the Third Reich, proves that artistic genius can flourish even under the most difficult circumstances. The film completely transcends its time and presents a simple love story, the themes of which are universal. Through both his settings and his actors, Kautner achieves a naturalism which has seldom been equaled. That he managed to do this in 1944-45 Germany is almost unbelievable. A fortunate and unexpected treasure from a most unfortunate time.

Timeless Escapism

[Dwolvesbane · 7/10 · 12 November 2008]

Under the Bridges is another fantastic film from German director Helmut Kautner. The plot of the film centers on a barge on the waterways of Germany in some unidentified time and the relationship between the two owners of the boat. This relationship becomes strained, and develops into a classic love triangle, when a woman comes on board and stays with them for a short time. As is usual of Kautner's films the characters are highly sympathetic and their relationships very realistic and well thought out. Almost anyone can identify with at least one of these archetypal main characters, whether it is the "Damsel in Distress" Anna, the "Loner with a Heart of Gold" Hendrick, or the "Nice Guy" Willy.

The most interesting factor in this film though is one that happens off screen. Filmed in 1945, and often interrupted by overhead allied bombers, this was one of the final films to pass the censors of the Third Reich in March 1945, the month before the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the soon following German surrender. Despite the pervasiveness of the looming military and political disaster that was apparent in Germany at the time the present is entirely absent from the film. The plot takes place in some sort of time out of time that is familiar and identifiable as some time in 20th century Germany, but this is only a vague placement. The timeless quality so embraced is indicative of Kautner's desire to remain apolitical during the war and to remain simply a filmmaker. The blissful ignorance of the film's contemporary political reality gives the film a very escapist quality, a very probable goal of Kautner's.

This film taken in its historical context has a very important message. It seems to largely be saying that no matter what happens on the world stage we are all still human and that no matter what befalls us we continue to survive, thrive, live, and love. This attitude towards human life is something that gives Kautner's films their human quality; that certain feeling that comes through them which seems to say "Despite all that happens, we must maintain hope."

a heart-winning romantic imbroglio level-headedly earns its auspicious ending fair and square

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 3 April 2018]

Made in the last year of the Third Reich by Helmut Käutner, one of the major figures of post-War German cinema, UNDER THE BRIDGES decisively shucks off its cardinal historical hallmark and taps into an alternative realm where warfare and defeatism make no trespass in its blueprint. A proletarian love triangle between one woman and two men which predates Truffaut's JULES AND JIM (1962), but in Käunter's head space, ménage à trois is a too risqué cop-out, monogamy is still the keynote and one of the two men must be friend-zoned.

The two bachelors are Hendrik (Raddatz) and Willy (Knuth), good friends and co-owners of a towed barge, who lament that living and working on the Havel river has taken a heavy toll on their chance of meeting a decent woman and getting married. Even their taste for the opposite sex is quite similar, both dally with a waitress called Vera (Grabley), who cannot choose between them because sometimes she cannot tell them apart, so naming a fatty goose Vera is their petty revenge, and Vera the goose will meet a very sorry ending when the suitors move onto their next target.

One night, they accidentally clock that there is a distressed girl leaning on the bridge's balustrade and it seems that she is going to jump but instead, she drops a 10-mark note into the water. And in the quirks of fate, the young girl Anna (Schroth) takes shelter on their barge while they sail toward Berlin where she lives on her lonesome. Both men take a fancy to her, whereas Anna is too defensive to reciprocate hers, and after learning that she earns her 10 marks from modeling, it casts a shadow on their courtship, and strains the bonhomie between the two men, whereupon Willy abandons their Amsterdam freight delivery and stays in Berlin with Anna, but her heart wants what it wants (a little friction is always the best catalyst of romance), three months later, everyone will find his or hers right place, on the barge of course.

Gauged as a progenitor of poetic realism, UNDER THE BRIDGES is visibly eking out its skimpy sustenance but graced with a beguiling silver allure (although the restoration is far from immaculate) through its embracing of both classic stock-in-trade (soft focus, glamorous close-ups, stark chiaroscuro) and unconventional montage choices (Dutch angles, heady editing, rustling flashback shots etc.), and remarkably, Käunter holds the central story tenably empathetic through its rational building of his three protagonists' inscape. Hannelore Schroth comports herself as a melancholic damsel-in-distress, but not without touching niceties; Carl Raddatz gives a convincing turn in solidifying Hendrik's amenable yet skeptical make-up and Gustav Knuth zippily runs away with his avuncular innocuousness.

In a word, UNDER THE BRIDGES is a heart-winning romantic imbroglio level-headedly earns its auspicious ending fair and square, a fitting morale booster and divertissement to its frazzled populace of the time.

A small miracle

[ChWasser · 21 November 1999]

This film was made in the last months of WWII. Because of the allied bombers flying over the set on their way to Berlin and because of the destruction of many locations shooting often had to be stopped and was resumed later when the alarm was over.

And yet "Unter den Brücken" became the most beautiful love-story in german cinema (apart from Ophüls' "Liebelei" of course) without any trace of propaganda. The acting of Hannelore Schroth is wonderfully natural even today and the cinematography reminds me of Jean Vigo's "L'Atalante" and Charles Laughton's "The Night Of The Hunter". This movie stands out as a real miracle and as a singular event in UFA history.

The heritage

[mart-45 · 10/10 · 3 March 2007]

This can be considered one of the very last films to be made in Nazi Germany - it passed the censorship in March 1945, but for obvious reasons didn't make it to the cinemas as the street battles were about to commence in Berlin in a few weeks. It's true that at least three new movies had their opening nights in Berlin as late as in March 1945, and reportedly two in April, which seems quite unbelievable. In most of his films Helmut Käutner succeeds in creating a world of his own, a sort of microcosm that holds only the people that we see on the screen. He did also excel in historical costume epics, but his forte was a simple, intimate film about what goes on in the soul. People often wonder, how is it possible that Käutner managed to create his films which are seemingly totally free of any kind of propaganda or references to the war and destruction around him during the time when propaganda was becoming the only remaining weaponry. But I don't think that's quite true: if Under the Bridges were made in a period of peace, it would totally lack the mesmerizing feeling that is attached to this film as we view in proper context. Suddenly it becomes amazingly human, allowing us to realize that even as most of the people in Germany must have thought they were facing total destruction and annihilation literally any day soon, they still kept living and loving and at some point the inner world must have eclipsed the world outside, were death was running amok. Being of the generation that hasn't seen war, I can only imagine how intense one's love or loneliness can grow in the world where there seems to be no tomorrow.

Whatever the story or the genre, Käutner manages to find aspects that make it interesting and wake a lot of human compassion. His storage of empathy and his skills to share it are bottomless. He truly was a great maker of great films about little people.

A forgotten masterpiece. The equal of "L'atalante" (Jean Vigo)

[frankde-jong · 9/10 · 29 August 2020]

Recently I wrote about the films of Wolfgang Staudte who made political films in the 50's, when most Germans preferred to forget about politics. "Unter den Brucken" is made by Helmut Käutner at the end of World War II. He made an a-political movie when the pressure to make a propaganda movie must have been enormous.

"Unter den Brucken" is a film about two men (Hendrik played by Carl Raddatz and Willy played by Gustav Knuth) and their old barge. They both have sometimes girlfriends but are longing for a stable relationship. One night they see a sad girl on a bridge (Anna played by Hannelore Schroth) and fear that she might commit suicide. They convince her to come onboard and when they both fall in love with her the story really gets going.

A story about men working in inland shipping and their complications with women sounds like "L'atalante" (1934, Jean Vigo) and that's true. However "L'atalante" is an all time classic and "Unter den Brucken" an almost forgotten film. That's not right, because "Unter den brucken" is in my opinion not the lesser one of these two films. It has a good story (right mix of romance and comedy) good actors and beautiful images.

There are beautful images of river landsscapes but also of the barge entering Berlin. The last mentioned images reminded me of Harry and Monica leaving Stockhom in "Summer with Monica" (1953, Ingmar Bergmen). By the way, given that the shooting took place in the final stages of World War II, it is a miracle that there is no war damage visible in the Berlin scenes.

The best thing of the film is the camerawork in the scenes between Hendrik and Anna. There are several of them.

• Anna cannot sleep because of the unusual sounds on the barge. Hendrik explains them one by one.
• Anna taking care of a small wound on the hand of Hendrik. Meanwhile they keep looking at each other.
• Hendrik leaving the appartment of Anna in Berlin. Anna looks out of the window and her shadow is projected on the walls of the building block on the other side of the street.
• Anna running up the stairs (only her legs are visible) when Hendrik is back from Rotterdam.

one of the last films made under the third Reich

[cynthiahost · 10/10 · 21 August 2010]

This is one of Helmet Kautner's best films.His last before the war ended.He has Carl Raddatz as playing a captain of a ship barge, in the same style that Hans Alber looked in Grosse Frieheit N. O. 7 including accordion.Gustav Knute,express with an l in German, is his assistant. Everything is happy go lucky in their business. They look at people on the bridge when they go under, until one day they meet a girl,played by Hannalore Schroth ,at night. They notice above the bridge she drops money into the water. They both stick the paddle out of the ship barge to pick the money up,wondering why she drop the money.As if she was going to commit suicide. They go up to her she tell them only that she about to go home but she missed the last bus. They offer her a ride . This is when the conflict between the two friends begin as they both become interested in her.As they reach Berlin the friends friction increased and they slowly start to fight each other for the girl.The war was still going on and Kautner were shooting this film a a location where there were no bombings,The last day she decides to cook a meal for them but the end up arguing about her . She leaves immediately.Carl later finds out where she lives. This is when they both really fall in love as she soaks his soar finger . But Knute shows up and spoils everything and Carl leaves. Later they both have a fight and Gustav leaves the ship and gets a job as a crane operator.Later both Gustave and the girl show up near the river to wait for Carl to show up . He never does. Later as Gustave is boat paddling her on the river. She finally reveals the secret of why she dropped the money in the river. Her ex boy friend was an artist and had hired her as a nude model for his painting. She was hoping he would fall for her but he was only interested in her as a model subject. When he an she is back near her apartment. She noticed that the light's on . She quickly runs to her apartment and it's him . He's back. Carl and Gustave later reconcile . They are all back at the ship barge together again. The location shots were at some parts of Berlin. Character actress of Germany Margete Haagen shows up as the landlady.HildegargKneff makes her early film appearance earlier in he picture. This film is worth a collection. If T.C.M wasn't greedy they could premiere this at their import show on Sundays but they are biased.

The girls walk to and fro.

[brogmiller · 10/10 · 25 April 2024]

This truly exceptional film, considered by its director Helmut Kautner to be his best, is even more remarkable in that it was filmed in arduous conditions during allied bombing raids and less than an hour's drive from the ravages of war in Berlin. The director, cast and crew were lucky for in Kautner's words: "We lived dreamily alongside time and distracted ourselves from all the horror through work."

It depicts working-class lives in the poetic realist style of Marcel Carné and echoes the lyricism of Vigo's 'L' Atalante'. Courtesy of cinematographer Igor Oberberg it is an etude of light and shadow whilst the haunting theme tune by Bernard Eichhorn is perfectly suited to the film's elegiac, melancholic mood.

Renowned for his gift with actors Kautner has drawn splendid performances from Hannelore Schroth, Carl Raddatz and Helmut Knuth, all of them familiar to German audiences. There is a simpatico between Schroth and Raddatz which is hardly surprising as they were husband and wife, albeit briefly.

Classified as a 'defector' film, one of those completed at the end of the National Socialist era but not premiered until after cessation of hostilities this masterpiece epitomises Kautner's refusal to use his work in the service of Nazi ideology which enabled him to pursue a highly personal approach to mainstrean cinema. As a result he is one of the true 'auteurs'.

Cinéphiles are obliged to shift tons of **** in order to find a diamond and discovering this beautifully realised, heart-winning film makes the effort worthwhile.

Ultimately nothing special

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 September 2016]

"Unter den Brücken" is a German movie from 1946, the first year after World War II, which means it has its 70th anniversary this year already. The cast and crew of this 100-minute black-and-white film include a handful names that are still well-known today in Germany, such as director Helmut Käutner, also one of the writers, and the very young Hildegard Knef in a smaller role, a while before her big stardom. The rest of the cast may be known to people with an interest in German films from the first half of the 20th century mostly. But this is not a criticism. On the contrary, the really high rating here on IMDb made me pretty curious about the film and it wasn't easy at all to get a hand on it. But when I finally did and succeeded, I must say I was mostly disappointed. The film struggles with the same problems that many silent films had. The plot does not become entirely clear because of mediocre writing and there is a great deal of overacting in here too, which really was a problem back then and as we see here also transitioned in the era of sound movies. And in the face of the film being so shortly after the War, it feels surprisingly irrelevant in terms of political context and a depiction of the state of events back then. This could have been accepted if this film at least delivered on the romantic front as the plot summary here on IMDb suggests, but nope. The characters are not really likable and thus it's difficult to really care for them, let alone cheer for them. The overacting (especially by one male lead actor) does the rest and really hurts the film even more. It may have been the filmmaker's intention to make a bleak film here, but it's really difficult in my opinion to feel anything watching this one. This is why my overall verdict is almost exclusively negative. you really have to care a lot for this era in film to end up appreciating this one. I did not and so I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

Fate Draws a Pat-Hand

[ramblin-jack · 20 December 2003]

Hendrik and Willi are co-owners of a cargo barge on the German River Havel. Goods are sent along the river's lifeline to the major ports of Germany. Rotterdam to Berlin and back again. Life is good on the river as far as it goes yet something is missing. Quick jump-offs in the towns along the way become habit. Loneliness can be baggage that we all pack unwittingly. Hendrik played by Carl Raddaz, realizes that real life is going by without them. Especially absent is the company of true female companionship. The river becomes a willing partner to the player who wishes to tempt fate for the rewards of life.

Fate draws a 'pat hand' when late one evening, from the moored barge, a pretty, young women is observed on a bridge ahead. Her lone lamp-lit silhouette showing against the background of night. Appearing distraught, she is crying. The men whisper she might end it all with one last step off the bridge and into cold eternity. Suddenly, she drops something into the black depths below, but by this time our bargemen are there, under the bridge, in their small dingy to retrieve the article. They observe the girl much closer. What to do?

For fate, in it's seeming randomness, allows a new chapter to unfold in three people's lives in post-war Germany. Their meeting becomes a driving gamble of need, and hope. The reward of human companionship, acceptance and the search for true happiness becomes a riddle these players must unravel only to discover that everyone are amateurs in this pageant. What are the mysterious steps required to win the battle over an almost predestined lonely future?

Director Helmut (The Devil's General) Kutner's allegorical tale is a canvas of light and shadow. Mixing pre-war German Industrial high-contrast themes with a kind of pre-natal Cinema Verite he presumes life's outward evidence of happiness is salted with an inner, lonely core which cannot be purged until the lessons of hope are proffered and dangled to the whole world to judge these volunteer competitors. Win or lose? Is the game worth the reward? You 'betcha!

Masterpiece of a flower sprouted from the rubble of Berlin at the end of WWII

[figueroafernando · 10/10 · 22 May 2023]

Just at the culmination of the ill-fated second war, a postwar flower blooms from the Berlin dunghill, an obvious miracle. There is an undeniable charm in the natural but innocent brutality of the Liese-lotte's sailors, Wili and Hendryk, with their accordion and their songs "a steamer growled smoosh smoosh", with their simple longings, as in the haughty humility of Anna the model for 10 marks that his painter supposed he had fallen in love with, a potato cook, in this excellent combination of a simple story with a psychological portrait of an impeccable character. The film ended, and I kept thinking about the blessed luck of that night on the Gkienicker Bridge, about to commit suicide?, in that shadow of Anna in the building in front of her apartment, in her fearful expression at the sewing machine, or in that gesture of a 5-year-old boy by Hendryk at the end of the steam song with his instrument and Willi's always discreet smile, in the dim light on the boat when Tobi, the Pomeranian, welcomes Willi barking after not seeing each other for a while ...and I think that you need so little film effect, and music, and drama to infect a full and pure romanticism without corniness or stupidity. Hendryk never forced his own fate or hastened that of Willi or Anna by subtracting solo and leaving during 3 months: It's like he knew he'd always get the beauty, or never, and then he'd care less. Masterpiece, and rethinking that it was shot in 1944 and 1945, that adds an itch of superstition that inflames the scrutinizing passion of a movie buff like me.

escapism?

[p.bierschenk · 11 October 2000]

Another comment said that this film "completely transcends its time". That's true, but I wonder how the contemporary audience interpreted this "transcendence". Was not-talking-about-war in the last days of WW2 understood as talking about war in a different way or simply as escapism?