Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000354 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 #:
000354
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 there is a horrible moment when one of the unfortunates is shown walking in a garden, his face completely covered by a black veil hanging from the rim of his hat; a sickening sensation when his hand goes up to remove his hat . . . Incidents not dwelt on unduly. The sex motive is rapidly surveyed throughout the whole scale of nature; from the humble snail to the superb reindeer. Salmon leap waterfalls to reach their breeding ground (in the words of the popular song: " Could Lloyd George do it?"), bull-frogs take to song, and gorgeous peacocks spread their tails. Personally, I find the evolution of a purely useless and decorative thing as a peacock's tail as difficult as the giraffe's neck is easy. Shots are inserted to show how some species have gone back. In the dark caves of Dalmatia there are colorless lizards which have lost their eves. Symbolism ends the film : modern civilization and people from every corner of the world, some of the negro heads being especially fine. Our schools need this film so much that we feel the necessity to repeat. To realize the tortures the adolescent mind can suffer one has only to read The Rampant Age, or Les FauxMonnayeurs. A picture like this would give balanced vision ; it would indicate that sex is not just a dark corner occupation invented by nasty-minded individuals, but a tremendous impulse throughout all nature. O. B. 72