Close Up (Jul-Nov 1927)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Nov 1927
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00093
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Switzerland, Early Cinema, and Global Cinema
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
Library of Congress, MBRS, Moving Image Section
Sponsor:
Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
As an active film magazine, CLOSE UP lasted only a short time, from 1927 to 1933. Yet the legacy of this English-language periodical, which was published in Switzerland, continues to matter. Edited by Bryher and her husband Kenneth Macpherson, CLOSE UP became THE magazine for energetic debates about the nature of cinema and manifestos imagining new forms of filmmaking and spectatorship. The magazine published articles by filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, and female literary modernists, such as H.D. and Gertrude Stein. As film scholar Anne Friedberg explains in the anthology CLOSE-UP, 1927-1933: CINEMA & MODERNISM, 'CLOSE UP became the model for a certain type of writing about film -- writing that was theoretically astute, politically incisive, critical of films that were simply 'entertainment.' For six and a half years, CLOSE UP maintained a forum for a broad variety of ideas about the cinema; it never advocated a single direction of development, but rather posed alternatives to existing modes of production, consumption, and film style.' Like Friedberg's own writing, CLOSE UP continues to be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of film and media theory. -- Eric Hoyt, 2014
Date Added:
August 29, 2022
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CLOSE UP all manner of experimental work hurrvdng on to a completely new equipment and technique. While through all this, the only thing that has not been done is the opening of the pubhc mind to the realities of the screen. The attitude has been wrong. It has been film industry', film industry-, film industry. And quite rightly up to a point. But naturally, after a certain amount of this people think Oh, films there's no art there, it's all purely industrial. But we have thirty per cent to capture, and we are going to talk film art at them until the right balance is established. Then, and then only can one really begin. And this month I was going to say more about a means to show films with special interest or experiment publicly in the European capitals. So far nothing definite has come about ; there is much to find out about restrictions and censorship and licences, and special conditions, but everything in time. It should not be so difficult once properly started. I know that people are enthusiastic over the notion, and rightly so, for here is a chance for the public to see, on the side, and simply, what is being done other than the more or less static presentation of commercial films. It is completelv natural that there is ignorance and apathy, because nobody is aware of the very great numiber of small film makers busy trying out new forms, and nobody can be aware until their work is seen. 13