Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Page scan 000279 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 #:
000279
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 tually impossible. And tliis, by way of illustration, is but one of the several causes that have led to the present situation. Another determining circumstance was the numerous and increasing cases of plagiarism on the part of unknown authors. This troublesome mischief alone did much to hasten the end of the volunteer cinema writer. Pictures cost too much money to risk the buying of a story, however excellent, from an unestablished or unrecognized author. In fact, an exceptionally good story from such a source to-day arouses suspicion rather than interest or welcome. It is, therefore, no more than reasonable that producers should depend upon accredited writers for their picture material. Nor are they to be criticized for their reluctance to accept such material from the outside until it has passed through the larval form of novel or stage play. It is merely a further safeguarding of their interests. A published book or a produced drama carries with it prima facie evidence of merit, as well as assurance of genuineness and legal proprietorship. There is also, of course, an incidental commercial value attaching to a popular work of fiction. Many a film rides to financial success on the popularity of its literary parent. Ben Hut, Peter Pan, Little Lord Fontleroy, Uncle Tom's Cabin are but a few random titles out of a score that might be cited in proof of this — titles which have drawn the crowds and the shekels, irrespective of the merits of their cinema translations. But at the same time it is a mistake to agree with the captious critics of Hollywood, that the producers in picturizing a successful present-day novel or play are prompted solely bv the advertising value of its success. Whatever their indivi 35