Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000739 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 #:
000739
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 appreciates the artistic side of the Cinema, and I find it very satisfying to utilise a rather excessive imagination. Until I can go abroad and see the productions of the Great Masters of the Camera it is a consolation to be seeing everyday scenes in the light that they should be visualised on English Screens, but rarely are. Of course, it is quite easy to foresee the danger that lies in making a habit of this kind if you are not the possessor of a strong mind and have not the real spirit of adoration for films. For instance, any one with an obsession for a certain filmstar could make a really ludicrous exhibition of themselves by pretending to be the perpetual hero or heroine of some sticky romance in which their idol featured. But then, that type would not be likely to be reading Close Up, To them, however, it would be necessary to point the moral contained in Merton of the Movies, Another source of interest lies in the plots and styles of the films. They may be as realistic as a Russian's, or as psychological as any German's. There need be no study of the conventions and the box-office hasn't to be considered. It is so refreshing to be able to see the film growing day by day as you pass a certain spot on your way to the Office, and see a poor down-trodden, moustached litle clerk sorting^ the mail in a huge wholesale warehouse, and know that after a few more mental vicissitudes he's going to slay his employer in a most ingenious manner with the date stamp he's been punching the mail with for the last twenty years. Of course, like all actors, he's allowed to have some private life, and I don't begrudge him his stout wife and growing family in the least, as long as they don't try and intrude into my film ! The other day I made a list of the Continental films which 55