Close Up (Jul-Dec 1930)

Page scan 00063 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 #:
00063
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 freedom he deserves. Amongst ten "projets cinegraphiques" he exhibited two simpUfied sets of such design and colour as to be directly adaptable to the screen. The German straight line new simplicity appears to have influenced Bilinsky more than the French adoption of curves. There are some fantastic visions for a film 7.97-5 which was conceived bv Ivan ^losjoukine in 1924, but remained unturned. The original designs for Sheherazade are admirably executed, and the costumes for the Ufa film Le Diahle Blanc subtly convey an 1850 epoch. Bilinsky has designed the costumes for Tarakanova, produced by R. Bernard and at present being presented at Paris, and for once his valuable work has been acknowledged bv his name being announced together with that of the producer and actors. Allowed freedom, Bilinsky could produce marvels, especially in simplicity, but he explained to me that when he designed, for example, a bare wall to give a certain effect, the producer would demand the addition of a banal picture to lend that necessary atmosphere of warmth." Bilinskv in designing his decors considers lighting and camera-angle, but he maintains that the chief principle of lighting most films is to make the picture as bright as possible and consequently the atmosphere produced by the lights and shades in his original sketches is almost invaribly lost. Bilinsky's contribution to Cinema is already extremely valuable and it is shameful that his name should remain in comparative oblivion owdng to the prevailing system of booming stars " only. Charles E. Stexhouse. The photographs illustrating Boris Bilinsky's work were kindly presented by the Galerie de France, Paris. 37