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 #:
00096
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 of their entertainment, and as long as they desire eyewash and bnnk they must have it. There are many people better capable of understanding and catering for the masses than we are, and our concern is not with the m.asses, but with the minority, — again, I repeat, a minority of millions, — whose tastes are disregarded, and whose tastes matter supremely, and 7nust be studied. On a sound basis there is miuch money for the producer who looks to these for his public. Organisation is all that is needed. And organisation is not such a difficult matter to arrange, although it has its pitfalls. Actually there is no need for quite such bad films in the big theatres of the Capitals as one sees, for here, in these theatres, the intellectual level is higher. One always notices that the better (I do not say the best, though I almost might) films fill the house, while the cheaper small-town, provincial sort of thing leaves it part empty. The fault is among the producers. There is no reason why they should not turn out bad films in the 1910 tradition if they can sell them, but it would be impossible to expect them to have the decency to say, "Yes, this is a rotten film, and must not be shown in the Capitals, or to any intelligent audience." The fault is equally among the theatres. It would be impossible to expect them to have the decency to say, "Oh, yes, this might go down, but we have too much respect for the intelligence and morale of our audiences to take it." As things are the good, better and best films can only hope to be wedged in betw^een the Little Annie Roonies and the Evil and Ermines. And one in quest of the good film may have to sit through a couple 16