Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000219 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jan-Jun 1929
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000219
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:
June 20, 2024
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CLOSE UP The scenario tells of a little servant (Catherine Hessling) who works in a cheap sailors' tavern. A preposterously muscular arm thrust through the service opening from the kitchen symbolises the tyranny of the cook. Catherine Hessling's blue eyes hardly register and they add an elfin touch to her face. Her slouchy walk, that is generally so artificial, is just the kind of walk that such a servant might assume after seeing Greta Garbo on the pictures. Her fluttering mannerisms might easily be the result of nervousness and the Garbo complex. A young sailor (George's Charlia) falls in love with this grotesque little creature. Unknown to his mother (Nathalie Lissenko) the boy collects money and clothes, and after several embarrassed meetings with the girl he proposes to her that they should go together somewhere far away, some foreign land. She is delighted beyond words, her buoyant walk is like that of Charlie Chaplin. She tosses a cake of soap from hand to hand as she cleans the floors. Everything is arranged, but meanwhile the mother discovers the boy's hidden bag. The day before their ship sails the boy calls on the girl. He makes love to her. She acquiesces. It becomes more passionate. She is frightened. The lust in his eyes reminds her of certain glances of customers; Chinese, half-castes, Ethiopians, dock-side bullies. She pushes him from her. She cries. She never wants to see him again. The boy returns to the mother, who tries not to show her pleased surprise; everything must be as before. Supper is ready, but the boy is lying on his bed crying out his heart. . . T3