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 #:
000468
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 retired for some weeks to the cutting room. He told me there are two thousand cuts in the entire fihn. As I saw it one was not conscious of any. ^^^len I said this he explained his method. "Every cut is made on some movement. At the end of one cut somebody is moving, at the beginning of the adjoining one the movement is continued. The eye is thus so occupied in following these movements that it misses the cuts. Of course, he added, "this was ver\' difficult to do.'* Contrast this method with the crude and utterly unapoloe:etic cutting: of nearlv all the films vou see. But what will happen to tliis work of art when censors, renters and others start chopping it up ? The principle will be Hke trimming the edge off rose petals with scissors to improve the shape. But, as I saw the film, it was flawless. Lighting, photography (by Wagner who photographed Warning Shadon's and now photographs the new Fritz Lang picture) were so suave and unstunted you might not be aware of their excellence (unless you were "in the know'") — which is the way of perfection. It was a completely individual work. One mind had conceived it, dominated it, and created it. Contrast, again, this impression with the loose and scattered feehng of the American films. ]\Ieanwhile let us acclaim Pabst as a genius, and you who want to see this film, help as much as you can by asking for it at your cinema. It was released in Germany in mid November. (I wonder how much they cut it there ?) If we do not cry out for it it may he in Wardour Street forever. Remember, Die Liele Der Jeanne Xey, an V F A film. K. M. 26