Close Up (Mar-Dec 1931)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Mar-Dec 1931
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00030
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:
November 07, 2023
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24 CLOSE UP Deux scenes de " Les Rapaces," furent censurees et ne parurent Zwei Szenen aus ' ' Gier ' ' von wurden und niemals zur Vor Two scenes from " Greed," by censored and never brought to the Photos : Courtesy of is behind schedule. The still cameraman must snatch a few stills in the lunch hour. Artistes are tired; property-men, electricians and the rest are tired and bored and hungry and thirsty. Workmen, on nearby sets, produce excruciating noises. . ." Ah ! the troubles of a Mr. Stanborough may be over now that a new illuminant has been fitted to a reflex camera so that the release of the shutter sets off the flash which is noiseless and smokeless. The short exposure possible prevents blurring, " the extra flash of light being too brief to be recognisable by the eye." Although the professional still man is apt to miss the offering of fresh angles and be worried, when with a reflex, with the necessity of dodging reflectors, lamps and such like. He likes to stand on the holy ground where the kine man stood. (Naturally for star-making, the still man should have his studio in which he can pose his portraits.) It is too difficult to think for more paragraphs of stills as publicity. One would rather look at the stills and be done with them ! Yet, stills can be, publicity stills can be, a record, a promise, a sharp thrill-stab. It is not earnestly required to know all that Manager X. at the Superb has done. One can pounce, at this point, on conclusions. That ordinary stills will continue to be used in the studio to help continuity of costume and the matching of lighting. That colour will trouble before stereoscopy. And that the ovals and panels will have to come FIRST from the avant-garde. (Already the still department is looked on with an economical eye — wastage in other departments being notorious; while Mr. Stanborough estimates that £80 will cover expenses of salary and material of his department for one film.) Once John London asked me, " How would you get a character, were you writing such a scenario, from a country house to a night club?" " I wouldn't," I replied. " I mean I wouldn't by rhyming mix and fade. I believe that the cinema has done something to time ; given the right,