Close Up (Jul-Dec 1929)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Dec 1929
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000105
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 ENXORE LE CINEMA FRANXAIS. ]\Ir. Lenauer, dans sa petite mise au point publiee dans !e precedent numero de Close Up, explique pourquoi il est ii profondement decu par la valeur actuelle des films francais, qui ne repond pas du tout a ce qu'il s'etait imagine. Qui aime bien chatie bien c'est entendu, mais de la a enterrer definitivement, il y a, me semble-t-il, une nuance qui n'echappera a personne. Je n'ai point voulu, dans ma precedente replique, innocenter le moins du monde le cinema francais; je n'ai fait en somme, par souci d'impartialite, que relever I'etroite parente qui existait entre les films francais, allemands, anglais ou americains, au point de vue des possibilites artistiques. Or ces possibilites la sont quasi nulles dans TOUTE ENTREPRISE COMMERCIALE ou Ton ne recherche avant tout qu'a cloturer un exercice avec profit. Et pour cela on s'est imagine, un peu partout, qu'il ne suffisait que de suivre les gouts du public. Peut-etre verrons-nous une reaction se dessiner a cet egard, mais, pour le moment, nous ne pouvons reperer aucun signe avant-coureur. Qu'il y ait une sensible difference de valeur entre la litterature et le film francais, cela n'est pas douteux, mais il incombe precisement aux jeunes de canaliser leur inspiration dans I'expression cinegraphique. Si quelques-uns seulement Tont essaye jusqu'ici, c'est sans doute en raison des difficultes que presentait un debut dans une telle carriere. Le monde artistique francais est toujours tres divise, comment pourrait-il en etre autrement lorsque les individus qui !e 75