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 #:
00098
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Global Cinema, Switzerland, and Early 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 Rather should we speak of the birth of British fikns, but that would be too obviously a confession of weakness. If there is genius in a country it is bound to come out, to make itself felt in some way or other. Remember that England was supplying films to America before the war and then realize what a stigma it would be for us, after all these years, to speak of the birth of British films. So we point at dreadful scarecrows of the past and gibber of the revival of British films. Of course film technique changes. When the Film Society decided to revive Lubitsch's "Marriage Circle" in London the Committee did not get an opportunity to run the film through till a few hours before the actual performance. They were appalled ! V/hat they had thought subtle and witty a few years ago was now slow and heav}^ They did their best to remedy the evil by projecting the film much faster than is usual but even then it sadlj^ lacked its pristine briUiance. Yet making all allowances for old British films not one of them can really be singled out as good. "The very best British film ever made" recently reached the cutting room^ prior to revival. It got no further ! The disagreeable fact must be faced that Britain lacks fikn tradition. What then ? Surely if there are no Robinsons, Murneaus, or Lupu Picks, there are at least m_en w^ho are efficient, men who know their jobs ? Surely England can acquire the slick polish that America spreads hke treacle over her sentimental bread and butter plots ? Alas not even that ! i8