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Historical films made by neuroscientists have shown up in several countries during past years. Although originally supposed to have been lost, we recently found a collection of films produced between 1909 and 1940 by Rudolf Magnus (1873-1927), professor of pharmacology (Utrecht) and his student Gysbertus Rademaker (1887-1957), professor of physiology (1928, succeeding Willem Einthoven) and neurology (1945, both in Leiden). Both collections deal with the physiology of body posture by the equilibrium of reflex musculature contractions for which experimental studies were done with animals (labyrinthectomies, cerebellectomies, and brainstem sections) and observations on patients. The films demonstrate the results of these studies. Moreover, there are films with babies showing tonic neck reflexes and moving images capturing adults with cerebellar symptoms following cerebellectomies for tumors and several other conditions. Magnus' studies resulted in his well-known Körperstellung (1924, "Body Posture") and Rademaker's research in his Das Stehen (1931, "Standing"). The films probably had an educative and scientific purpose. Magnus demonstrated his films at congresses, including the Eighth International Congress of Physiologists (Vienna, 1910) and Rademaker screened his moving images at meetings of the Amsterdam Neurologists Society (at several occasions as reflected in the Winkler-Monakow correspondence and the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde). Next to these purposes, the films were used to analyze movement and a series of images from the films were published in articles and books. The films are important historical sources that provide a portrait of the pre-World War II era in neuroscience, partly answering questions on how physicians dealt with patients and researchers with their laboratory animals. Moreover, the films confirm that cinematography was an important scientific tool in neuroscience research.

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De Brug (The Bridge) is a black-and-white short silent film by Joris Ivens about the Koningshavenbrug in Rotterdam, a railroad lift bridge built between 1925 and 1927 also known as De Hef (The Lift). An iconic title of the Dutch avant-garde, the film brought Ivens international recognition. The film is largely a lyrical and abstract study; it presents the bridge as a masterpiece of modern engineering and shows the motion of, on, and around the steel construction, including all kinds of modern traffic. A train stops when the bridge lifts up, allowing ships to pass underneath on the river Maas. Ivens explores the bridge from multiple perspectives using extreme high and low angles, thus emphasizing a modern perception of fragmentation and re-composition. In a self-reflexive way, he demonstrates this perception as the rationale of cinema by integrating images of his 35mm Kinamo camera and himself at the beginning of the film. Shot against the background of Rotterdam’s skyline in a dynamic composition, the bridge becomes a product of cinema. Ivens’ film celebrates the aesthetic of the machine in its encounter of two pieces of modern technology: The Lift and the film camera.