Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000355 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 #:
000355
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 WHAT OF THE FUTURE They cannot last. I give them a ten' years/' Time, 1909. Subject, the movies. Tlie oracle, D. W. Griffith. An engaging exam.ple of the treachery of prophecy. And when a major prophet of tlie cinema can thus be rebuked by events, what, it mav be asked, does it avail a minor member of the craft to thrust himself forward and ask attention while he delivers himself of a vision ? It would avail little, save for the fact that he is not a pessimist. This alone, aside from what he may utter, should prove an acceptable divertissement. An optimistic or encouraging outlook among those engaged in the solemn business of discussing the movies is as rare as it is hazardous. Jeremiahs are plentiful. A prophet of gloom is assured always of respect and applause. He who foresees brightness, success, advancement, goodness, betterment, is seldom interesting. Biliousness is a far more dramatic source of inspiration than eupepsia. If you would have an attentive and sympathetic audience you must speak sombrely and with grave shakings of the head. Previews of failure and disaster are much more to the general taste. That such picturings rarely prove real is no matter. Better luck next time. 73