Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Page scan 000100 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Dec 1928
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000100
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:
July 25, 2024
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CLOSE UP Avenue and he is appointed by his firm, Gaumont-British ; he has therefore to earn his hving, and make the cinema pay. He is not a free agent, he is not a rich man determined to put his money into showing as many good films as he can while the mony lasts, and he has no financial backing. From first to last he is a business man, and he shows films because it is his job. But he has found that, even in London, it is just as possible to show good films as bad, and that good films pay, once censors and customs officials can be placated. He has decided to let London have something approaching the Ursulines, and the way he has set about it, because he is a business man, is interesting. He did not say "Here is an Ursulines, come along and see exotic films", and make a gallant stand against the indifference such a statement would have caused among his patrons. He first showed his patrons several good films and saw how they liked them. They did like them, and so did others who heard there was a film one could enjoy at the Avenue Pavilion. He thus made sure of his regular audience, and added to it. Ivan Moskvin's The Postmaster was shown, so were Impetuous Youth and Jeanne Ney. Jeanne Ney was such a success that Mr. Ogilvie wishes to put it on again, but cannot until it has teen generally released. Vaudeville was put on for a week. Although it had been on in the West End during the winter, it proved so popular that it w^as kept on for two. As I write, Grune's The Street is runrjing, to be follow^ed by The Nihelungs. It is one of the great fallacies, encouraged by men of h 64