Close Up (Jan-Jun 1928)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jan-Jun 1928
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000257
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 28, 2022
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

CLOSE UP cheapness and lazy proximity ; they realize that they are sacrificing something, but what is this talk about the print ? They will admit that the photography and lighting are tremendous factors in the composition of a film, that the cinema is primarily a visual art, and yet they are content to see pictures under conditions that will never be anything but an insult to the eyes. All that the camera man has put into his negative will rarely be seen at the cinema round the corner. All the atmosphere that has been so carefully created by the lighting lost. All hypnotic illusion gone because of the dull aching pain behind the eyes. Why I know of people who, li/ing in the country, have never really seen a film, although they go to the cinema once a week. All this because of the print ? Well, nearly. First of all there is the trade show. That is important. The exhibitors come and if they like the film they book it, therefore the shop window must be dressed. It is not an easy thing to print a film nowadays, when moving camera shots are in vogue with producers who like to be thought 46 modern". (Question. When was the first moving shot taken ?). The light densities on the faces are continually changing and developing and printing are work for the expert of experts. Naturally a good print cannot be obtained without a good negative, but a good negative will never yield a good copy without expert help. 80 the studio retain the services of a special gentleman who prints the 44 trade-show' ' copy of the films. Yes, they speak quite openly of the '4trade 11