Close Up (Jan-Jun 1929)

Page scan 000776 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 #:
000776
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 meme, une fusion parfaite de tons les elements ecrits en une masse originale. Dans le moule du cinema, tel que le realise Rene Clair, se cristallisent les observations les plus fines en une langue souple et lumineuse, emondee de ponctuations, qui a pour elle ce que le theatre ne pent acquerir : la pulsation propre de la vie, la fugacite d'expression inherente a toute action humaine. II n'est guere possible, apres avoir vu le chapeaii de paille d'italie de contester Topportunite de certaines adaptations theatrales a I'ecran. Tout depend naturellement du talent du metteur en scene, talent d'improvisation, de ''lecture" optique et d'adaptation au rythme cinegraphique. II n'est pas trace d'effort ni de servilite dans le film qui nous occupe. Son auteur a saisi avec art la signification picturale des descriptions de Labiche ; il se sert avec une rare habilete des accents et retrouve par le jeu ingenieux des situations evoquees 1' ironie fonciere du canevas litteraire. L'objectif n'a pas trahi la plume, ni Rene Clair, Labiche. Tel succes n'aurait pu etre realise, il faut en convenir, sans une collaboration d'acteurs de premiere qualite. La encore, le metteur en scene a su choisir tres intelligemment les types propices a I'exteriorisation la plus frappante. Tous, sans exception, concourent harmonieusement a la composition de cette charge un tant soit peu agitee par endroits, mais si intensement vecue que son passage a Tecran n'egratigne aucune susceptibilite. Quoi de plus reussi que cet interminable va et vient, dans la rue, des compagnons de noce de Prejean, qui se rencontrent, le matin, nets et lucides, pour se retrouver le soir en flagrant desarroi. La cravate qui ne tient pas, Tepingle 92