The bridge

Sunday Times magazine today had an article on the film 'The Bridge'. Watching the trailer was enough to tell that i'm going to have a strong connection with it. Its about the Golden Gate Bridge and the people who go there to end their lives.

Some ethical caveats - the film-makers would always try to intervene if possible, although it wasn't those who were crying, or pulling their hair, as they initially thought, who jumped -

"The first person i saw jump was in jogging clothes. He'd run out onto the bridge and was laughing on the cellphone. He hung up, took off his sunglasses and jumped in a matter of seconds."

I know the feeling of throwing yourself into 'happy' behaviour around other people, only for the darkness to overwhelm you the moment you can recede into yourself. Unsurprisingly, most of the suicides are by those with mental illness. The film has apparently gone a long way to persuading the bridge authority to finally ok a long proposed barrier on the sides of the bridge.

Stylistically the director Eric Steel uses long slow tracking shots up and down the bridge and had 10000 hours of film from one set of cameras on the bridge and one set at water level. And I imagine the starkness of the bridge makes a beautiful juxtaposition with the emotions of the content.

Sounds beautiful and haunting, and one I know I'll be glad of the dark when I watch in the cinema.