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 #:
00019
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 among themselves, there is no need for this retrogression, the manacled, slave-driven genius turns happily to sound, seeing already beyond the tap of feet outside to counterpoint view of an empty room, beyond firebells, beyond the dripping water-tap. Is not the fancy-dress Caesar already using the lapping of rivers, the soughing of rain ? But the genius knows there is no place for him yet. Al Jolson has still to make a greater singing fool of himself. Dolores Costello has yet to be filtered to something at least as quiet as a saw-mill. No wonder the genius weeps. ^ * Then over this sullen sky shone one apocalyptic line of light. Erno Metzner made Uberfall, and the way of the genius director was pointed. And, as quickly, the apocalyptic ray was snuffed bv the censor — the one man who believes that Justice is blind and works accordingly. Uberfall was a message of hope. A way out, a pass, a defile. It presented new form for the short film. And, as yet, there is nothing to be done to the meddlers who have power to forbid it. Such are the ram's thoughts on his birthdav. Not gay, you have seen. A little too discouraged perhaps. But the thought-reader was wrong about vibrations of defeat, and the ram is not asking for silent films again, though it looks uncommonly like it. He is asking for intelligent sound films. He has seen his friends hurt, and would willingly hasten to his butting. The year ahead is already licked bv war as a house bv flames. 9