Close Up (Jul-Dec 1929)

Page scan 000181 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Dec 1929
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000181
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 Judgment's a-coming, Judgment's a-coming, De dark's guine kiver from sho' to sho' : And de angel wid de trumpet say times no mo'. For judgynent substitute awakening, Xo longer a colour but a people I Art directors worked on the principal of "black women and blue wine" ; greased g'lintings of majestic torso; black faces and white pearls and red lips. Kaleidoscope turned gently to guard against the spontaneous, to ensure the colour pattern. Till in Yvette Cavalcanti tore off the black skin like a cloak, and gave it to the Hessling to wear. Hallelujah, hallelujah I Kingdom and Race. Hallelujah ! The tremendous fact of starting all over again, with no ghastly traditions. Hoii) come dis? Film journals are not the place for enthusiasm and uppitiness ; beyond that, enthusiasm is dangerous for critical balance. In the first stage to excuse bad acting, the conviction that the film is worth while being cherished before it is unwound, it is hailed as quaint custom. When the critic sees his first batch of negro films he is sure to slip up, just as he did with the early Russian productions. Never mind all negro creative work, in dance or in stone, â– stands security for LIFE in the negro film. ]\Ir. Robert Herring in a brilliant article, published in one of the most important English newspapers, pleaded with film producers to find their material in everv walk of life. He said, "It is impossible to read in the paper that 'two hundred workmen have been rendered idle as the result of the closing down of the Cum Duffryn Colliery, Port Talbot, 123