Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000445 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 #:
000445
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 we want is a motive. An ideal towards which to work. There is no Enghsh cinema tradition behind us. Our films are purposeless, made as cheaply as possible in the hope of making money. Even the uncritical English audiences are getting tired of the home product, and, Heaven knows; the average London audience has to be spoon-fed with piffle for its entertainment. Stars, stars, stars ! We are saturated with Hollywood poison. We develop our ''cinema" by dabbling in the exploitation of servant girls in the hope that they will one day be as popular at the box-office as the Gishes were once supposed to be. This box-office bogey has burrowed into our souls. Our films have been throttled by it. Films, in the real sense of the word, are unknown in the \English studio. Has there ever been an artistically satisfying British film? No. Because we must serve the box-office. And yet, as I said last month, w^e have it in us. One day we shall make a picture. But w^hen ? Analyse the greatness of the outstanding films. You will find they are made for a purpose. Art is not a self-contained entity. Film directors must be students, men who have learnt to express their individuality and their philosophy in terms of movement and rhythm. You remember the profundity of Mademoiselle from ArmentiereSy the searching psychology of Sailors Don't Care? The cinematic vision of Maria Marten, the deep compositions in The Further Adventures of the Flag Lieutenant? That is the stuff we make. And our Press call Piccadilly a masterpiece, while the Burgomaster of Stilemonde, according to another inspired writer, is a sincere and 35