Close Up (Mar-Dec 1932)

Page scan 000328 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Mar-Dec 1932
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000328
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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310 CLOSE UP is a big and intricate book (not only in text content but in cross references, elaborate indexes, bibliography, etc.) must have been written and produced with a definite elastic co-operation between writer and printer. Which is very much " to the good." Nor is it necessary to understand Italian in order to appreciate and desire Cinema Yesterday and To-day. The illustrations, of which there are three hundred and thirty odd, are alone sufficient to make it eminently desirable, and what regret would go to the fact that some excellent reading matter would be wasted, would be amply compensated by a book of " stills " which are not only beautifully printed and more numerous than many books devoted exclusively to illustration, but extremely interesting; including, as they do, some magnificent Russian, and some Italian, d'ieri e oggi, to say nothing of English, German, French, American contributions. The text restricts itself mainly to historical matter, tracing the growth and development of cinema in European countries and America, from the beginning until now. The first part of the book — Cenni di Stilistica Cinematografica — which is an excellent essayon film and its potentialities, its position and what is said about it — allocates a specific place to cinema in modern art — la macchina as opposed to the plain pencil {la semplice matita). Here is a book which is not only engagingly written, but as orderly as a Roneo filing cabinet ! In its divisions and sub-headings, indeed, it is not unlike a filing system, and an excellent one at that ! Ninetv lire used to be a pound. Alas for the crisis ! K. M. A small exhibition of Madame Lotte Reiniger's Puppet Dolls was held privately in London on October 27th. About fifty people were present to see the puppets, among them Margaret Kennedy, Helen Simpson, Dr. Prince Hopkins, Dr. Money Kyrle, Dr. Richman, Mrs. Alan Harris, and representatives of the Childrens' Book Club, and the Film Society. A performance of Red Riding Hood with the puppets evoked great applause, the story being recited while the puppets were manipulated. In addition to the five dolls representing the characters in Red Riding Hood a really beautiful set illustrating Graf Pozzi's Kasperle play of Prince Ruby Red and Princess Lily-White and a smaller set of Puss in Boots were on view. The ease with which' a miniature stage can be improvised out of a clothes horse and some draperies and a small table and a few cardboard boxes makes the arranging of puppet plays a recreation possible in all circumstances. The Puppets themselves are little masterpieces, each one made by Lotte Reiniger herself, and entirely by hand, and as no two can ever be alike a puppet will be a valuable possession in 3'ears to come. A large number of individual puppets and some complete sets were sold at the exhibition. Many of those present hoped it would be possible to arrange another show at which Madame Reiniger could herself appear on her next visit to England.