Close Up (Jul-Dec 1929)

Page scan 000536 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 #:
000536
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 * 'That's what I say," Perkins reports as having ventured to say. Tm telling you, Buddy," Silverspan continued, " I've got the whole Drama business classified, from A to Z. First in the lot come the ' sex ' pictures, and that includes the sheik stuff, the gold diggers, the sophisticated society play, the Broadway picture, the ' Clown with the Broken Heart ' movie, practically the cream of the industry. Next to this staple article is the ' mystery ' or ' crook ' picture, because the dear public likes almost as much a good crook picture with some shooting in it as they do a leg show. Of course, we've got a few side lines that are always big money producers. Kentucky troubles always go over big. South seas, Jewish comedies, Russian Aristocracy, all about those naughty counts and dukes who fall in love with our girls, Canadian Patrol, Chinatown stuff, and Parisian sin are all good market articles. And if a picture is a grand success, it don't hurt to repeat it under a different name. Let's say, if Broadway Flappers is a money maker, then we change the plot around a bit and call it Broadway Jazz, and there you have another knock-out. There you have the whole thing in a nutshell, you might say, the whole drama business that all these wiseacres write about without knowing the first principle. Short and sweet, take it or leave it. " You may wonder, perhaps, why we took your Canadian Patrol picture in preference to a lot of other mighty good scenarios in the National Contest. What I want in my business is a lot of young fellows who are willing to learn, none of your highbrows that are eager to tell me what to do. Not that I can't appreciate originality like when you make 870