Close Up (Jul-Dec 1930)

Page scan 00060 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Jul-Dec 1930
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00060
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 lastly the coloured film 400 Coups du Diable, which includes a performance of the box-trick done in record time, establishes Georges Melies as a real pioneer of the world's cinematography. The same programme feted the twentieth anniversary of the coronation of King George V by presenting a coloured film of the 1910 ceremonies in India, accompanied by a gramophone record of God Save the King repeated about twenty-five times ! In contrast to these very old films, a representative 1930 studio programme was presented. The only really new film in this group was a montage-film of a Russian village, a short essay by Leonide Moguilevsky. From the very first pictures, I was reminded of the General Line and I learnt afterwards that the film is actually a montage from. General Line, although this was not announced in order that the film, which is no more than a pretty pastoral elegy, should not be banned by the Censor who has instructions at present to ban everything Sovietic. It was interesting to view these pictures which are as beautiful as in Eisenstein's film and yet which lack the force which he only put into them. In the Tribune Libre's Cavalcanti evening, we saw for the first time extracts from Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, which however did not give a very clear idea of the possibilities of this film. It was nevertheless glorious to see that curious picture of white Hessling on a black horse (see Close Up, February, 1930) come to life. Hessling has been given great scope to portray her oddities, and there is one magnificent piece of cinema when she, clinging to a wind-mill, revolves in the air. The last programme of the Tribune Libre's season was devoted to amateur films. Mr. Jacques Henri 34