Close Up (Mar-Dec 1932)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Mar-Dec 1932
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000285
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Early Cinema, Global Cinema, and Switzerland
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:
February 22, 2024
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CLOSE UP 267 Only a vague idea can be gleaned by the imaginative from the above. The charm is in the method. This was a film made with minimum outlay, for, being unknown persons, large sums were not available. These brothers, without wish to dazzle, desired to show that good work can be done with simple means. No complicated camera-work, nothing very extraordinary, simply a straight realization of a theme which had amused them. Pierre Prevert, directing for the first time, shows that he belongs to that exceptional class of beings that one might call born directors. He has those precious gifts so sadly lacking in the majority of those who tinker with films. He knew exactly how to use his actors, of whom many were nonprofessionals, and under his direction they achieved that economy of gesture which enchants. They were able to adapt themselves to the inconsequent logic of Jacques Prevert's scenario. One can easily be mistaken. But I think I make no mistake in predicting a happy career for this film, even outside the French-speaking countries, as well as for the brothers Prevert. They deserve it. Jean Lenauer. A scene from the Portuguese film " Campinos." Une scene du film portugais : " Campinos." Eine Szene aus dem portiigiesischen Film " Campinos."