Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 000149 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 #:
000149
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 an American film occupies a period of several months, and Charlie Chaplin thinks nothing of devoting years to a single production, in Japan a full-length film is commonly completed in four weeks, and quite often in from seven to fifteen days. This feverish rate of production is necessitated by the economic difficulties under which the Japanese film industry is labouring, and by dint of it Japan produced in 1926 a total of 875 films, as compared with 755 produced by America in the same year. The life of the Japanese actor is correspondingly strenuous. Here is a day in the life of the famous Japanese film actor, Assari : from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. he fills the role of a healthy young sportsman; from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. that of a worthless rake who seduces a young girl; from 7 p.m. until the early hours of the next morning he has to play the part of a love-sick peasant youth, and by noon of the same day he is at work on yet another film. All the Japanese film-actors come into one of two categories — those who specialise in historical roles and those who specialise in contemporary roles, the latter being further, though not so rigidly divided into sportsmen, comedians and lovers. This classification does not apply to the female members of the profession, who — in emulation of the American star " system — are commonly selected more in virtue of their personal charms than of their suitability for the particular role ; in Himself and Five Women, for instance, the female parts are played by a veritable constellation of Japanese film stars. The power of the Japanese film actors and the beauty of the Japanese film actresses are admirably exemplified in the illustration to N. Kaufmann's delightful book, which, equally with the 97