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 #:
000388
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 instructed to clap perhaps before any music had been plaved, for the poor silent screen can only record the music through the reactions of the audience to the music. Here is a weak point of their system. In order to allow our picture-goers to grasp the significance of the music, as the director wants them to understand it, the audience must roughly be divided into groups who will react in the same way. In the concerthall no two people would react in quite the same manner to the same composition, but the average picture-goer cannot be expected to exert himself. Popular conceptions of different people must react in the popularly conceived manner. Mr. Basil Dean saw to it that his groups acted in unison. His lynx eye detected what the third-man-from-the-left-inthe-last-row was doing, and why was the woman in the silver turban leaning too much to her right? The " supers were marshalled and drilled with the precision worthy of a crack regiment. They were initiated into the laws of etiquette, psychology and other law. Mr. Dean had a flow of witticisms to decorate his instructions. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what the picture-goer w^anted. Now," he instructed through the megaphone, some people get up and wave their programmes. Not the people in the dress-circle; they have paid more money and are more self-conscious." You elderly people may show a little approval this time. It is very melodious, so like DEAR Gilbert and Sullivan ; but, of course, you must be verv ' refeened ' in your applause — you know what I mean." Stop laughing there. When I sav ' one ' you all lean a little to the left, when I say ' two ' . . ." 42