Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Page scan 000365 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 #:
000365
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 are aware of the immense possibilities of influencing the masses by means of the film and of the responsibilities hereby resting upon themselves, and have passed this resolution in the interest of the furtherance of international good understanding/' Here, also, we have a beautiful sermon. Upon years of grim deeds there inevitably follows a reaction in the form of fine words. At every turn one meets wellmeaning speech ; at diplomatic gatherings, in open tribunals, at Congresses. During this meeting of Cinema-owners urbanity played many parts : the words internationalism, Europe, peace, Locarno, friendship, brotherhood, humanity, echoed harmoniously about and called forth enthusiastic applause. The gusto and spontaneity of these demonstrations inevitably recalls similar activities of hand and throat in times of national conflagration — but the national are the more accountable. Nationalism rests upon the status quo and can therefore rely with certainty upon appeals to the feelings. Internationalism picks its way amidst forecasts of ideas upon relationships still to be established, and calls, therefore, for the more delicate adjustments of thought. But even if one could conceive as possible a carrying over of these earnest proclamations into kindred activities, one would be committed to sceptical reservations by the mentality of these filminternationalists, a mentality whose primitive arbitrariness and accommodating commercially is self-evident. The official resolution of the French section demands : (a) That any scenario calculated to engender or to support international hostility, or to promote militarism, shall be rejected; (h) such character parts as tend to degrade or to ridicule any nation, or any foreign personality, to be avoided ; (c) the beauties of 19