Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 000148 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 #:
000148
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 out to the sinner, however repentant, and the film-producer, intent on pandering to the pubHc predilection for a happy ending. The fact that the censor won the day indicates another of the fetters upon the development of Japanese cinematographic art. The " Nikkatsu " has at its disposal the services not only of the best actors and film-directors, but also of the leading connoisseurs in Japanese antiquity, and the artistic merit of its productions is conspicuouslv high. The Soetsiku organisation is more up-to-date and revolutionary in its methods and in its choice and treatment of its subjects. Whereas in the Nikkatsu films, contemporarv life is idealised, romanticised, Americanised, the Soetsiku aims at a more realistic, naturalisitic treatment of its material. In addition to a school of cinematography, it has founded three important film-factories, the chief of which, at Kamata, has become a sort of Japanese Hollywood. Some few years ago a stretch of rice fields with a few scattered houses, Kamata now has a population of 100,000, and the staff of its filmfactory numbers some 1,000, including 50 directors, 80 technicians, 600 actors, as well as mounters, photographers, scenic artists, etc., while its well-equipped pavilions allow the completion of up to 12 films daily. At Kamata only films on contemporary subjects are produced. The other two Soetsiku factories are the " Simo-Kamo " and the " Bantsum " — the latter originally founded by the famous actor, Tsumasaburo Bando, whence its name — both of which specialise in films based on Japanese classical antiquity. To most people the East stands for leisurely methods and America for hustle, but in cinematography American speedrecords are far outdone by Japan. While the production of 96