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 #:
000497
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 all the German detail but none of the German significance ? They are tr\'ing to hve down the type of distortion known as "typical movie", are they ? But this is distortion, too. It is all distortion. We want character, national character, individuaUty, urge — not this dreary standardisation which bhnd cutting to suit the world-market is leading us to. So what are we to do ? We know that the films, an art to a few, are entertainm.ent to the many. We know that the trade knows what is entertainment. And so it ought, it is its job. But it ought to know a great deal better. There is a great deal of the pubhc that is dissatisfied, is XOT entertained. And why don't they cut the improbabihties — the pearls left under an open window in The Silver Lining, the door left unlocked in The Chess Player ? Why, above all, don't they tell us they, are cutting ? We have a right to see. If you don't hke the edited version and we all say so, it is worth showing us the original fihn. Then we can judge. If we don't hke that we can go back to the firm's version. And don't treat us hke children, with Thoit Shalt Not See. TeU us this is the Enghsh edition ; don't use the foreign criticisms of the foreign film to put over your own hashed-up selection from it. We want to be able to judge for ourselves. We want to know what we are talking about. It is much better publicity that we should, for you can't stop us talking even if you can stop us seeing. And supposing the pubhc financed the directors, instead of the firms. WTiat would happen then ? Robert Herring. 35