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 #:
000511
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 probably it may have been. Anyhow it is an interesting fihn, if only on account of its subject. But we must congratulate Warner for a rendering that could not have been more gracious or miore graceful. It would be illogical to object that xeUgion should not be made an excuse for money making as long as there are collection plates in churches, or again, when entertainment tax is charged to hordes of pleasure-seekers visiting the premises of a murder. A Cecil M. de Mille Fihn. BED AND SOFA Here is an example of the newest Russian non-propagandistic film, a simple stor\' almost crudely told, yet astounding in its sheer uncompromise. Bed And Sofa is a storv^ of modern Russia and of poor people, and the cost of production must have been neghgable. Nearly the whole action takes place in a tenement room. The usual technique is almost ignored, and havoc is made of time sequence by reckless cuts, by unrelated continuity, by every fault that the amateur can make. And yet here was a film that gripped and had genius. Its verv^ uneven-ness gave it an odd power ; almost, one might say, created a new technique. It should be played without music, and its staccato movement would be in accord. Music made blur, or attempted to bridge over, which was a mistake. 69