Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000320 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 #:
000320
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
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 LP moment in Potemkin when the command is given to Fire I The orchestration should fade out as the moment approaches and from the silence the voice would speak out the word, loud and staccato. The effect would be tremendous and dramatic. But it is most important that the scenarist, the composer, the director and the producer should decide in committee where exactlv music, where effects, and where vocal contrapunct is to be synchronised in a given film, so that it is included in the script, before work on the floor is begun, " The full-length talking picture has a doubtful future, but if it comes it will be serious for the theatre." What did Herr Meisel think of Potemkin?'' The disparity between his command of English and the immensity of his feeling about this film found expression in his shining eyes and wide-spread arms. He did manage sufficient voice to say : Well, if you have not seen Potevikin, then you have not seen a film." This naturally led to talk of Russian films. Did he think Russian films the greatest in the world?" Russian films," he said, are verv o^reat films. Thev are so powerfullv moving. The audiences are always half out of their seats, gripping the arms and backs of them with concentrated intensity of excitement. I am not Communist. And it is not the political. But Russian films are so full of the people. I have been to Russia and have talked with Pudowkin, Eisenstein and others. There they do things that are not possible anvwhere else. If Pudowkin wants a thousand workpeople, he rings the telephone and in a short time a thousand workpeople are on the scene straight from 46