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 #:
000230
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 fully it will have to encounter 3^et another enemy — the cutter. The cutter has a staunch ally, the censor. Not long ago a film was submitted to the censor in which the young hero is seduced by a dark and ravishing siren. He is thrown off his balance and fails in his exams. The censor said, "No, nothing must happen between the boy and the woman." With a grateful w^hoop of joy the cutter pounced on the film. Subtitles were virtually hurled between the clenched teeth of the characters. Everj'thing was straightened out for the weak-headed citizen, and the critics said, ^'WTiat poor direction !" But should the film, this great epic that we all long to see, pass the dangers of renters, cutters and censors, I have no doubt about its reception. It is ridiculous to say that that fantasy is above the heads of the pubhc. What of our fairy stories, and the legends of Bohemia ? I do not saj that the public would understand the "Emak Bakia'' of Man Ra\' or the ''Absolute Operas" of Ruttman, but (and I say this at great risk of offending the highbrows) who does ? These things are a cult. Therefore the first pitfall that the young director (he sureh' will be young) must not fall into is the attempt to appeal to an\^ special clique. The second is to avoid, as far as possible, human flesh. These are the two chief faults of most fihn fantasies. In ''Aihta'' the crowds were dressed in scant costumes, the men showing arms and legs in a manner reminiscent of the Roman soldier. Xow flesh is such a matter-of-fact, ever\'day 64