Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 000102 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 #:
000102
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 rapprochements les instantanes obtenus, de maniere a reunir les phenomenes se rapportant au meme objet, ce n'est pas, que je sache, faire oeuvre de philosophe, mais plutot composer une maniere de compendium visuel de Tactivite humaine, qui a son charme, son utilite geographique aussi, mais qui n'est autre chose qu'un instructif divertissement. Ce qui demeure, malgre tout, en faveur d'une telle exposition, c'est la fraicheur, I'inedit des vision obtenues de premiere main, I'accent precieux d'une realite saisie sur le vif et qui constitue une garantie d'absolue valeur dpcumentaire. Ruttmann s'est sans doute limite aux traits principaux, a volontairement ignore une multitude de signes secondaires; il ne pouvait agir autrement dans la necessite ou il se trouvait de grouper sur un metrage de pellicule relativement court, une matiere aussi considerable. Mais a mon sens il eut mieux valu ne traiter que I'un ou I'autre ses sujets presentes : monuments — rues — travail — religions — bruits guerriers — enfants — habitants de la campagne et de la mer — duels, sports-courses, en I'approfondissant quelque peu. Telle qu'elle a ete composee. La Melodie Dii Monde n'apparait que comme un travail hativement prepare, brilliant sans doute, mais depourvu de reelle philosophic, je dirais meme de reel interet scientifique. On n'escamote pas I'univers en quarante minutes, si presse que Ton soit actuellement. La musique composee exclusivement pour I'accompagnement du film est presque toujours satisfaisante, en ce sens qu'elle souligne, renforce, complete assez bien les diverses phases du mouvement cinegraphique. II serait au reste facile de varier a I'infini ce complement musical sans que Ton puisse, avec quelque autorite, juger de" Tune ou I'autre 72