Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 00065 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jan-Jun 1930
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00065
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 VP 3. The Last Attraction . The Last Attraction directed by O. Preobrashenskaya, is somewhat of a disappointment after the same director's Peasant l]^07nen of Reaoan. The film which begins as a pleasant comedy, turns suddenly into tragedy without preparation or unity of idea. Yet the theme might have been excellent. For it is the story of an over-zealous revolutionary student, a kind of Russian Harold Llovd, in big horn-rimmed glasses with a hidden revolver, who finds the villagers slow to respond to the new ideas. So he commandeers a broken down caravan, and its occupants, a kind of tiny travelling circus, who are very uncertain as to what a revolution can be. He repaints the caravan and the scenery, writes new songs. Then leaves with it and a box full of propagandist booklets which he distributes in the villages after the performances. At first the circus people resist him, but the revolver is persuasive. Then the girl (R. Pushnaya the Anna, from the ^yomen of Reazan) falls in love with him and his path is smoother. But her former friend, the acrobat, becomes jealous. At a village performance they are all arrested bv the opposing troops, but, thanks to the apparent stupidity of the circus people, they are released with blows and a promise to give a " counter-revolutionary " performance to the troops. The jealous acrobat threatens, however, to denounce the student to the commander but does not do so, at the final moment. Meanwhile, the student is seen hiding papers and a revolver, is captured and shot. The acrobat rushes over the hills to summon the revolutionary troops. The commander of the opposing forces 43