Close Up (Jul-Dec 1928)

Page scan 000370 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 #:
000370
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 How well it is shown here that just one moment can shatter lives. The young pair sit brooding and silent in their room. Plere, virtually, is the end of their happiness. Nothing much has shown it to be so, yet Room's great gift for psychology does allow him to succeed in showing us that something has snapped here ; some root that was growing from freedom and carefree youth has been unearthed and will wither. These, the most subtle and distinguished of his points, are all superbly shown, and not overstressed. But his more obvious points are pummelled and rammed at you until you have to reject them. They acquire theatricality, they become strident and unreal. I refer here primarily to the incident at the end, where the young wife, taking a part in the Workers' Theatre, forgets her part, and turns round to scream a long, witheringtirade at her neglectful husband. Even this might have been alright if she had been great in herself, as, say, Baranowskaja is great, but unfortunately she was not a great or even a good actress, and this over-dramatic moment, which consummate artistry could have turned into something plausible, and even oveiwhelming, was pure bathos. The child arrives, and during the time which has elapsed, the husband has begun to fall into bad habits. He drinks heavily, and begins to earn for himself a bad reputation at the Foundry. Here business is not prospering, and some of the hands are discharged. The first to go are the married women, so his wife is among them. The blow^ is heavy, and again its undermining effect is shown by the subtlety of nothing much happening, but a faint emphasis for those w^ho not only see but watch, on the disintegration of the little home. You might at least change your apron the husband 24