Close Up (Mar-Dec 1933)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Mar-Dec 1933
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00054
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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46 CLOSE UP The most interesting fact was that, answering my anxious enquiry as to Japanese talkies and refusing to be pinned down to a study of Oriental cinema that he did not make, he says the Japanese cannot have enough English-speaking talkies. They attend with dictionary and grammar, to study English. Heaven help them if they hit Lilian Harvey or Leslie Fuller ! Put there's plenty to learn from Japan, if not from the fan males, the boys we are mad about, the actual touch with the studio. For what have we learnt? Nothing at all, unless we have been able to get a picture of the man to see behind the next film each of them makes. Well, you don't expect film-men to discuss their ideas. That's what they make film from. And meanwhile, almost unnoticed by the press, two German cameramen were in London, ending their task of quite simply filming the British Isles. With the help of the Travel Association, Herren Koch and Lutz, of the Doering-Film-Werke, Hannover, spent three months filming factories, places of scenic or historic interest, for a sound-film of 7,000 feet to be shown on the Ufa circuit through the German-speaking countries and Norddeutscher Lloyd liners. They shot 25,000 feet .... a straight, serious film, with no fun about Air. This or That, no sham story or artificial adventure. They said they found nothing in England the least like Germany ; their film should bring out a detached view of this country. They were most struck by English friendliness, English country, the bad coffee and the good whiskey. An English version of this film, made with full co-operation of big firms, factories and authorities, and undertaken with a purpose, will be prepared for this country. Two gossipnotes ; Herr Koch, allowed in the guard's van for shots, hung his coat by mistake on the emergency brake, and the train stopped. The train was the Flying Scotsman. And — they got the King returning from Sandringham, but are not allowed to use it, as you may not photograph Royalty unawares; so bits from news-reels, made with permission, will be put in instead. Says We, if I may say so. Robert Herring.