Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000774 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 #:
000774
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 bords de I'ecran, cernent un centre lumineux qui se deforine et disparait. Le cinema est ici tour a tour escamoteur ct prestidigitateur, subtilisant une forme, aussitot entrevue, pour en restituer une autre. Sans trop de peine Ton con^oit les ficelles des tours magiques executes par I'auteur de ces opuscules qui ont le double merite d'etre courts et de n'avoir aucune pretention. Lotte Reiniger, a qui nous devons cette fine dentelle que sont les aventures du Princes Ahmad, a droit certes a notre admiration pour avoir su mener a chef pareil jeu de patience. Un conte des Mille et Une nuits, evoquant la cour du sultan, les randonnees aeriennes du prince Ahmad, a dos de cheval, et les interminables combats que le prince doit engager pour delivrer la princesse de son coeur des mains de petits diables repoussants. Grace a la bonne volonte d'une vieille sorciere edentee, et a la complaisance d'Aladin, qui lui prete sa lampe, Ahmad reussira a vaincre un vilain enchanteur, a exterminer un serpent de dimensions respectables, et Tessaim des globules blancs que sont les bons esprits bousculera celui des globules noirs malfaisants dans Tantre qu'ils meritent. Pour animer bonshommes et animaux decoupes devant les decors minuscules, il ne fallait certes pas ignorer les lois du mouvement organique. A de rares exceptions pres, les gestes et les attitudes obtenus temoignent, sous ce rapport, d'une parfaite maitrise. S'il y a quelques deplacements un peu saccades qui rappellent les guignols du theatre de marionnettes, il y a aussi, par ailleurs, une etonnante souplesse dans certaines demarches, une etonnante realite de vie aussi. C'est ceci precisement qui est digne d'etre releve, je crois. D'autres visions, celle, par 90