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 #:
000483
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:
June 20, 2024
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CLOSE UP Studio lighting is always being improved, there, are new lights which do not hurt the eyes, and others which give depth and character to the face without make-up, but in every case the principal is the arc hght. I know of an artistic film, which was only shown privately in this country, that was lit solely by candles ; but that film was made under the supervision of a Russian artist. In a commercial studio we make pictures, we do not paint them ! At present the intensely bright light of the arcs forces the electricians working on the larger lights to wear green glasses which completely cover the eyes ; while many sensible people on the floor sport — you have to 'sport' these things don't you ? — shades that would fill a tennis player with professional jealousy. A small schoolboy, or any other monster, knows that the resistance offered to an electric current passing through a conductor manifests itself in heat, and with the arc lamp greater resistance is offered because the carbon electrodes are separated. The coefliciency of resistance of the intervening air is so high that there is a locahzation of resistance and heat. Both positive and negative pencils of carbon, which are the terminals in a circuit, wear away ; the positive becoming cupped or hollowed. The director takes this as a personal affront to himself. When a lamp has to be reloaded he blames the electrician ! The upper carbon rod of an arc hght is cored, that is it is drilled through the centre and packed with powdered car 41