Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 000215 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 #:
000215
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 lune; que Ton voie clairement qui s'aime et qui ne s'aime point . . . et pas d'indifferents, s'il vous plait, cela ne rime a rien. \^ous aimez le ragout ? \^ous, vous, vous aussi . . . combien done, au total? Ah I la majorite. Bien, que Ton serve du ragout, vite, et beaucoup . . . et toujours. Quel habile restaurateur que le cinema I Ainsi tenez, me disait I'autre jour un spectateur desabuse : Le him american, ah oui I Le beau film americain fait travailler 100 charpentiers, 30 decorateurs, 10 electriciens, mobilise 6 vedettes celebres, ameute 1,000 figurants, requiert un budget de publicite de 50,000 dollars et . . . va son chemin. Et les Allemands, eux, persistent a prendre le colossal pour le beau, I'obscur pour le profond, le plat pour I'accidente. Le rire ne se fabrique pas a Berlin, mieux vaut cela car le rire germain n'est pas communicatif du tout. Mais au moins ici deja les idees apparaissent, les desseins ont une certaine portee, les realisations une saveur particuliere. Et A^ienne tourne des valses, comme si de rien n'etait, sans s'inquieter de personne. \^ienne puise et repulse dans le stock, en nombre inepuisable, des archiducs folichons, des souverains gateux et des roitelets. A^ienne sabre le champagne, recree des bataillons de Strauss melancoliques, arrose le parquet de fleurs, les films de sous-titres reveurs, le monde d'actualite fanee. A^ienne fait gai, puis lassant, et enfin intolerable. L'ltalie, parait-il, va se remettre au travail. Pour notre bonheur et pour le sien, esperons une transformation radicale de sa maniere. Esperons surtout la disparition d'attitudes " inbertiniment " detestables, d'exploits " macistement " banals. La France! trop vieille et trop jeune a la fois ; les E 147