Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Dec 1928
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000146
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 reasons of to-day should in a case like this be allowed to misrepresent history. Potemkin, on the other hand, has been going the rounds in its uncut version; that is to say, with the inclusion of the formerly banned scenes of the drowning officers, the raising of the red flag, and the toppling pram. Meisel's music, with this, have made the presentation more than noteworthy. And speaking of Meisel, Berlin has been playing at the Tauentzien Palast to crowded audiences. Meisel's gorgeous music again exhilarates. Perhaps there are too manv trams in Berlin. At least, it has been stated so. Is it not, however, purelv a question of temperament? If you watcli Berlin objectively it may lack much that individuals would claim to be part of daily life in a great city. If its images are allowed to pass subjectively before your eyes, it does not lack hypnotic force, and carries all the movement and clatter of the streets. Anna Karenina, with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, is havmg a huge success at the Gloria Palast. As this is the rottenest possible film, it is clear that its success is due to the beauty of Greta Garbo, who has a Belle Bennett part of mother love. In twenty years they will be trying vainly to give her those parts for which her youth and beauty now make her suited. As I say, the film is just tripe, and Greta's clothes an abomination. If ever bad taste plus vulgarity and tawdriness meant anything they w^ould here, but for the fact of Greta's loveliness and utter inability to look like anything but an overgrown adolescent dressing up for a school play. Kleinstadtsiinder, with Asta Nielsen, has been on at one of the Ufa. houses, and revivals, notes on which will be found in Comment and Review, at various houses. 8