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 #:
000544
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 It is well that people should keep alert their Diogenes lamp and light up the odd corners of the screen (though I always had an idea he brought a few cobwebs out of his tub) ; it is well to have everything dug up and recorded, Glozel as well as Luxor, but it is a pity to be so engrossed in moonjumping that you miss the cat with its fiddle, three times daily, on earth. You are so likely to because this cat isn't photographed or silhouetted, is just a comic drawn cat. But it actually is comic, adjective from comedy, not from musichall. Yes, don't miss the cartoon shorts because you only go in for the big picture. I have seen them lately at the Carlton, the Capitol, Mme. Tussaud's (let us now praise Mr. Ogilvie). When the film was bad, they saved my life; when the film was good, what an excellent cocktail they were ! I went in to see Four Feathers. Annoyed, angered, I-knew-it-ed. Good things, of course, good things, but some would have been excellent if they'd been let alone, not dolled up with a story and actors who, though among the pleasantest maybe in Hollywood, were here distasteful by their inappropriateness. But before, there had been a Micky Mouse Cartoon that I laughed at and liked. I don't remember laughing so much or being let down so little after one funny bit, since talkies w^ere in. I have always liked the cartoon films, despite the name. The French, in this, manage this better; they call them " dessins animes ", and the Tribune Libre once had a seance consecrated to them. Felix and Krazy Kat, even Inkwell Imp are my friends, and here and now I would like to stake a protest against using Felix to typify popular entertainment with a sneer. He is 378