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 #:
000516
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 L P the lower middle class family life which supports, and in consequence, fills such places; and this would be quite enough if it were a theme, but it is only an incident — one of Pabst's few chances to state something, and state it he does. The rest is the decay of a young woman who does not, in fact decay, but remains as charming in the end as she was in her confirmation dress. In any event, the life of a Fallen One, as such, is surely of interest only to very young people who are not sure of exactly what it implies. The reader will gather that it was a very uneven film. It was. Louise Brooks looked beautiful enough, but she had nothing to do. She did cry once, some rather collegiate, sophomore tears, but they were not the kind of tears the^' v;ere meant to be. Laurels go to A^aleska Gert. To Fritz Rasp and to Sybille Schmitz, who had a small part in the beginning and was quite wonderful in it. I would, mvself, have given her the leading role. She would have been much better. This is the material Pabst is given. And he is one of the few masters of the screen. Of course, if he were given material worthy of his talents, it would inevitably be censored. This gives me an idea for a film plot. Let us take a story, some rather sexv stor}', and let us have two directors each deciding how to make the film. Let one construct with an eye to the censor, and the other with honest, explicit truthfulness. Show the results in parallel, scene by scene, and watch Avhich the censor rejects. There's a capital scenario. But of course, it would be censored. Kexxeth Macphersox.