Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Page scan 000251 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 #:
000251
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 fad than it is to go to the task of developing the great, if puzzling, silent medium that lies open to them. About the only thing there has been time for, as a matter of fact, is the denunciation of those who are skeptical of the talking pictures as blind and ancient reactionaries. We who feel that this supposed advance is really a serious and unfortunate step in retrograde are regarded as foes of progress. When we proclaim that the addition of dialogue to film means casting aside all the pioneer progress toward creating a new art form specialising in dynamic pantomime, we are reminded of the sad and rather ridiculous fate of the unfortunate King Canute. All the same, the matters we bring forward have not yet been faced by the advocates of screen talk. Almost hysterically we have recalled to the enemies of silence that the cinema, handicapped by all the disadvantages a youthful medium of expression could well face, was actually on the verge of getting somewhere as a distinctive art medium. Proclaiming that the combination of cinematic pantomime with music was potentially the most tremendous assault on the emotions yet devised, w^e have protested against this new and slavish attempt to imitate stage technique just when this idea was about to be developed. A speaking film, our manifesto went, was, even if handled with the highest skill, bound to remain little but a pale, inadequate reflection of the stage, lacking the virtues of both cinema and theater. The appeal of motion pictures, we recalled, was essentially visual, and their outstanding virtues the broad, sweeping canvas and the rapid shifting of position they offer for dynamic dramatic narration. All the important scenes in screen history, we added, from the stampede of 15