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 #:
000533
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 business of ours, it's because Tve been aching for a long, long time to give a piece of my mind to some of you educated fellows, writers and others. Oh, yes, yes, you've got the knowledge, college degrees, Latin, and all that, but you have not got all the brains in the world, as may be some of you " intellectual " folks will realize some day. Go into my offices sometimes and see for yourself : they're full of college graduates working for a man who's never seen the inside of an institution. Let me tell you the meaning of all this : ' Where a man's purse is, there his heart is No matter what your business is, watch out where the dough comes in from. What's a man making shoes for? What's a prizefighter getting his inside all busted up for? What's all the boys and girls trying to get a job in the movies for ? Foi CASH is the answer. Say," and here Silverspan warmed up to his breathless audience, look at all these highbrow English, Scotch, and other foreign writers whose books we've made into movies, the Kiplings, Barries, and the rest of them. Why, we trim their work to suit ourselves, and they dance to our tune, because money talks, always has and always will be. (Applause). Now I never read any books; I have more important things to do. But I know that Shakespeare and those other old boys are full of hokum that any writer working in my plant can do as well and better. Proof? Look at the cash receipts. Perhaps you see now that I do know something about my Drama business. Well, one of these days maybe, when I can take some time off for myself, I'll put it all between covers for you young folks to read. Remember, my first principle of the Drama is : * Give the public what it wants '. And always remember too that 367