Close Up (Jan-Jun 1930)

Page scan 000216 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 #:
000216
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 jeunes de talent y mendient les occasions et si, par hasard, ils reussissent a sortir une bande interessante, I'oncle Sam empoche rhomme et ses possibilites. II est beaucoup de petits vieux, par contre, forts d'une experience theatrale, d'une situation coquette, qui tournent mal, incurablement mal. II est des quantites d'acteurs qui posent pour le repos des beats . . . et d'innombrables petites amies qui etalent leur anatomic sans vie. Mais les bons interpretes, sobres, intelligents qui s'essaient a vivre devant la camera sont maintenus de force dans le cadre d'une tradition scenique qui tend a etouffer le complet essor de leur personnalite. Le cant " britannique enleve aux produits d'outreManche, saveur et virilite. Restent les bateaux, les marins, les pecheurs, les demonstrations navales, les intrigues de tearoom, les Charlestons . . . et puie . . . et puis la feconde imagination de Wallace. Et pourtant que ne fournit pas TAngleterre en fait d'individualites de caractere ! Le film russe, ah ! les belles images et les types si vrais, ah ! le marveilleuse sincerite de la prise de vues . . . que de promesses ! Mais pourquoi duper eternellement I'honnete homme en lui faisant croire que c'est chez les fortunes seuls que se rencontrent les tares ? Quand cet boniment aura disparu du film sovietique, alors il sera peut-etre sans reproche. Et le monde du cinema, c'est bien le plus beaus qui soit ! Les talents 3^ coudoient les genies et Ton ne peut faire un pas sans marcher sur le pied d'une etoile . . . ces etoiles qui brillent le plus souvent de tout I'eclat d'un fard indispensable, portees aux nues, car elles ne sauraient y atteindre de leurs propres moyens, elles s'y cramponnent, puis palissent, et se 148