Close Up (Jul-Dec 1929)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Dec 1929
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00015
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 Vol. V No. I July 1929 AS IS BY THE EDITOR Nobody would believe, from a scrutiny of film conditions at this present time, that Close Up could be enjoying yet another birthday. Yet here we are, unweakened by attrition or starvation, once more going forth — kind of Zodiacal Aries — butting with horns, stamping with hooves, lacking only a dragon's fire to scorch our enemies. This is again a happy anniversarv, and Aries is growing to a big ram. His woollv head is wiser and his rounded horns have o'rown hard. To-day, because it is his birthday, he is sitting quietly, with his head not far above the earth, not making many signs. If you are misled into thinking he has eaten too much birthday cake, someone — a thought-reader, shall we say — will put you right for the asking. His mood is serious, even slightly troubled. He has much to think about, and few to confide in. For he does not take such woes as he has outside a limited family group. The thought-reader will pause here, and ask you if you wish the divination to continue. Without losing his pensive stare, o