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 #:
000228
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

CLOSE UP but I quote it so that you may realize what kind of man is in charge of your entertainment. He is known as the renter, and he decides whether you shall see a picture or not. In other words you are brought down to his level, and his taste and culture are not usually above reproach. Of course there are exceptions, notable exceptions, but still exceptions. These renters sit in their offices and talk of 'box-office values', 'box-office titles', /C. E. A. reports' ; when they are confronted with an imaginative film they are embarrassed because you, as the great public, are not supposed to have any imagination. If you do not have your bathing girl sequence, your bedroom scene, you will go away and brand the picture as 'lacking entertainment angles.' The great ones shudder. If they do 'put the film out' they do so tentatively, without any publicity campaign, and in the trade papers it is recommended for 'discriminating patrons'. The production secures sparse country bookings and very few people are aware that the film has been shown at all. However it is far more likely that it will be consigned to the shelf. I have been told that it was impossible to find a renter who would offer a rock bottom price of £ 500 for the exquisite 'Adventures of Prince Achmed'. Not one man with sufficient love of his business to try an inexpensive experiment, for ■£ 500 means nothing to a renter ! It may be that the difficulty of finding a renter prepared to take imaginative work is responsible for the present dearth of fantasy on the screen. An ominous sign this. Most of the screen's classics have been inspired by fantastic scripts. 62