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 #:
000323
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 that more real use might have been made of it. Except for the defunct Pastorale, this is the first ballet in which M. Diagilev has shown that he realises the potentialities of combining the two forms ; one had imagined that he was waiting till someone had made a vital and necessary use of it. But the cinema in Ode is used, as the constructivist scenery in The Cat was used, as things in the ballet have got into the habit of being used, for decorative purposes rather than for expression. Cinema is so amusing ", and it solves a lot of difficulties. Yet it was not so " amusingly " used as in last year's Berlin production of Hopp-la Wir Leben, and there is a great deal, which does not seem to have been practically considered, in which a combination of dancing figures before and within a moving film, could give true and considerable delight. One cannot help thinking that if M. Diagilev's troupe is to go on being the spice in London's rather stodgy pudding, a little less Monte Carlo and a little more Moscow would give it a great kick. R. H. We have received from Mr. Rogerson an interesting catalogue of educational films from British Instructional Films Ltd., 46, Brewer Street, W.l. Among others are films dealing with agriculture, poultry, rearing, the mechanism of a motor car, various geographic pictures dealing with different parts of the Empire, health, animals, and many other subjects. It is stated that the cost of hiring the films is ten shillings per reel and carriage one way, or a special contract may be made to cover a number of reels delivered over a period. Films 71