Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Page scan 000177 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 #:
000177
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
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 Motion is not enough. A man walking across the screen is only a man walking ; a photograph of his feet moving is no more than that. But catch his footfalls with the proper shade of emphasis, and the screen reproduces the sound and sends it winging out to the mental ears of the audience. These same footfalls can be muted, too. A dog barks silently until you level the camera at him from his own height, and catch the sound at an angle — a different angle for each tone, low for a bark, high for a howl, straight in the dog's face for a snarl. You will remember — how could anyone forget ? — the howling of the sledge dogs at the end of Nanook of the North. Flaherty sent chills down my spine with that; and I have watched many dogs, and even wolves, howl upon the screen and have remained indifferent. So with the human voice. Two actors bellowing at each other produce only a jarring noise, or what is worse, a rapid movement of lips without sound; but when their words are photographed with delicate shades of emphasis, the spectator hears every word, because he feels it all. In What Price Glory, Raoul Walsh achieved this effect sensationally, transferring stage dialogue to the screen with splendid skill. . . Probably the wailing movies are necessary for the unimaginative. Still, even clods must tire, eventually, of this new toy ; and what a gorgeous financial crash it is going to be for producers and exhibitors, with their costly investment in reproductive and broadcasting devices ! The very men who would not risk a few thousands to experiment with new ideas in pictures have cast millions into the maw of this mechanical apparatus, with a future perilously doubtful. 31