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 #:
000253
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:
August 29, 2022
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CLOSE UP The newer method is a strong, silent ca$e of felt which the appareil wears like a top-coat. This ponderous box is supposed to make it possible to lift the camera about again. It might have led to a recurrence of superfluous footage and cameramen, but the weight of this 100 per cent silencer plus, say a Bell and Howell, suggests it would be easier to lift the Nelson column. Renewal of mobility, unlikely. Limitation of space — another money saver. Honolulu sprouts (or would do) in the studio now. Its balmy breezes fanning palm leaves made by the studio hand which gently shakes the branch. Do you remember Hungarian Rhapsody ? Excuses if you are trying to forget it, but there, in a film that was virtually silent, though meant as a motif undertone for tzigane Hungarian airs, Hoffman, the great, magnificent master, allowed somebody to shake leaf shadows over Dita Parlo's close ups in one scene. Apart from the fact that they were very badly shaken, the master did not trouble to repeat them in the semi-shots. Which is just the kind of thing that happens w^hen you take your outdoors indoors. But you must not say this to a director of talkies. It is surely bad enough for him, his operator, stars and staff, that all free holidays in sunny lands are at an end. Can you blame them if the foliage flicks like whips? But, all the same, remember, money saved. And money saved is money earned, they say. Simplification of method. Days now not wrecks to finish up those supervisor-hunted, out-of-schedule shots. Good reason's, these, for cheapness. Then why the Wall Street ultimatum? SLASH !" (see Cinema. August 12th.) The answ^er might be " Slush." 169