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 #:
000404
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Global Cinema, Switzerland, and Early 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:
June 20, 2024
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CLOSE UP form of film-art. Much that in the normal film cannot be represented at all, since the actors, being human, are in bondage to physical laws, can be fully expressed in the drawn film, for here the imagination of the artist has full play. Moreover, what is by no means an insignificant incidental advantage, the comparative cheapness of this form of film offers to all draughtsmen able to create films an excellent field. With the simplest installation of light, a camera, a little paper and much talent, fine work can most certainly be achieved. After an introductory general consideration of the Film and some useful chronological matter, the author enters his chosen field. In a singularly practical and simple manner he teaches us the art of the drawn film. The necessary appliances can, we are told, easily be made by any capable amateur craftsman. We learn all about the joining of the various movements and of so many other important details, that I have no doubt whatever that a sufficiently imaginative amateur with only small means at his disposal could make, with the help of this book, a good cartoon film. Nothing is omitted. All the ingenious devices that can serve the purposes of this most tedious and care-demanding art are brought to our notice. The possibilities of the drawn film grow clear as we read. Dream ideas, dream wishes, may be fulfilled. We are in the land of fantasy, a land, unfortunately, too rarely visited. Dr. Wolter very justly remarks that the essential for the drawn film, as for all other artistic work, is a leading idea. Also that it is useless to begin until one has completely grasped the character of the medium. Having given some practical advice as to the development, drying and copying of film, the author turns to the educational possibilities of the 50