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 #:
000501
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
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CLOSE LP The commercial result was small and the artistic very little larger. This need not surprise us when we consider that his earlier adherents, expecting him to continue along his own lines, were disillusioned, and the larger public, undereducated by the average film, were unable to find their bearings ; Clair, moreover, is not particularly kind to the larger public. The great mass of poor-spirited, small bourgeoisie that is so large a proportion of the French people, saw itself, half-consciously, of course, mercilessly caricatured : its pettiness, its gestures, its very clothes. And this in such a way as to render impossible any illusion as to who it was that w^as being caricatured, any escape into malicious joy at the discomfiture of one's neighbours. The result was unfortunate. For a whole year the firm to w^hich Clair was bound by contract was foolish enough to refuse him permission to produce. This in a country where qualities comparable to his own are to be found, perhaps, in three or four makers of films, appears inexplicable, but such was the case. Clair, together with Pabst (though, it goes without saying, on quite other lines), is, amongst European producers, the one whose personality is most completely misunderstood. At present he is once more adapting a stage comedy, Labiche's Les Deux Timides (the Chapeau de Faille d'ltalie was also adapted from a play by Labiche). The film is not yet finished and, as I know Clair too well to worry him with questions about his current work, I am not able to say much about it. But in spite of myself I am rejoicing in advance, and I know I shall not be disappointed. 3T