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 #:
000483
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Early Cinema, Global Cinema, and Switzerland
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 Fields believes that it is unique among British or American propaganda films in that there is no villain, and that the ' message ' is not defeated by over emphasis. The ' other side ' is not made a martyr of, and the foolish young man is a very charming personality. The difficulty in making English propaganda films is (a) small allocation of money — the Government allows about a third per reel of the amount allowed in Germany, and (b) the refusal of most public and private societies to allow an interesting story, or a subtle means of approach. The Secrets of Xatiire Films, for which ]\Iiss Fields is responsible, are to be synchronised. It will be possible to listen to the bean as it runs, and the process will be explained by voice instead of by sub-titles. R. d'E. B. The World League for Sexual Reform arranged a showing of the early Russian film Abortion. It is difficult to comment on it from a cinematographic point of view. It was not, as Avas announced, the Russian version but a censored German copy, so scratched that it was sometimes difficult to distinguish the images. The projector and the film broke constantly. It would have seemed worth while to hire a portable projector for the evening. To the intelligent individual it is difficult to understand why the film should not have been shown to family audiences at the Polytechnic. It had much in common with the Little A^ictorian moral stories nurses used to read to children on