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 #:
000387
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:
August 29, 2022
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 attempts have been made to commission composers of artistic standing to write special scores. Darius ]^Iilhaud did for L'hihiimaine, and Edmund Meisel did for Berlin, PotemUin and Ten Days, while Wolfang Zeller went further and inspired the delightful Adventures of Prince Achmed. Some years ago, when Morosko was shown at the Polytechnic, it was dignified with special music, and there were the additional numbers that Strauss wrote for the Rosenkavalier film. But when do we hear the incidental music which Honegger composed for the cinema, and what has happened to the cinema music of Eric Satie? Let our producer speak again for himself. Petulantly I can hear him say that filming a jazz band does not make him a musician. vSir, I can tell that from the ridiculous positions in which your actresses hold the violin Just a song at twilight ") or the amazing wav in which hands thump piano keys in close-ups. The apodosis was reached in The Constant Nymph ; when Basil Dean eiecred to take an important sequence in the Queen's Hall. The strangest concert in the home of the Promenade Supposing somebody said to one of the old brigade of concert-goers and Bach enthusiasts : " Do come to the Queen's Hall to-morrow. Evening dress. Be there at eleven in the morning and don't forget to bring your make-up with you." Probably if he accepted he would hear a few bars of music ; most of the time when the orchestra was on the platform he would be told to get his lunch. He would see a matinee idol take the baton to lead the orchestra, that sombre pattern of black and white, now with powdered cheeks; the tuba player with painted lips. He would be 41