Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 00087 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 #:
00087
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 would serve very well to answer those who said that the technique of silent films could go no further. He started with portraits that showed that still photography was almost an unexploited adventure. Familiar faces, taken by him, became characteristic moments in time — moods impaled, as it were, and kept for ever. One eye would peep round a black, scythe-like coil of hair. A nose and an e}'e would look forward across a blank darkness. Each of his heads would seem to be living, would convey something of vitality and impermanence. His method has been called cinematic. To cinema it belongs. In cinema, as a matter of fact, it was born. He played a small part in L berfall, the now famous, though still unseen film of Erno Metzner. Xot only did he play a part, but realising a former ambition, he brought with him a still camera, and began his photographic career by making the stills for that film. I have not seen him at work making films, though I have had the pleasure of seeing his new, short fantasy starring Sigfried Arno, but when I went to see him, he made a portrait of me, so I can tell vou about that. A large, comfortable studio, invitingly nooked, and divanned, with an English fire as somewhat welcome change from the porcelain stoves of the Berlin best-parlours. Tea is served, cigarettes. You want to see some of his photos? Lights are turned on. 2,000 watt, I think. Cigarettes, please. A portfolio of thrilling pictures is put in your hand. Suddenly i\Ir. Casparius is standing on a chair or kneeling behind you, and something that has poked over vour shoulder and disappeared, has been a camera — a 57