Close Up (Mar-Dec 1933)

Page scan 00074 from Close Up

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Mar-Dec 1933
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
00074
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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66 CLOSE UP bearing a grudge against Kira, gave the latter at the General's Palace a cut which proved to be not very serious. Asano, however, was ordered to commit Hara-kiri by the General's law. After two years of difficulties, the forty seven faithful of Asano's men revenged themselves upon Kira one snow falling night. Such is the story in a nutshell. Teinosuke Kinigasa films the sage ojily as it is traditionally known, never penetrating into the nucleus of the story from the new standpoint. (Just like Abel Gance in his Napoleon). If we put out of the question our dissatisfaction in that respect, Kinugasa is said to have done a comparatively good job. His success in Chushingura is due to> the scenario construction, so well built that there is not a dull moment, during three and a half hours' run. I heard that Kinugasa, when he was making it, was much exercised by many questions, such as synchronisation, anti-synchronisation, relations of sound with image, changing cuts by the antecendence of sound, utilization of silence, application of Kabuki-methods, etc. Though in this picture we can see two or three scenes in which dialogues are taken contrapuntally, they seem to me to be mere technics unreasonably applied, not rising necessarilv from previous scenes. The most important and significant experiment is in a sequence at the beginning of the second part of this picture, in which events are developed in the milieu of a Japanese theatre of the corresponding time, As Asano's Hara-kiri event was a sensation at the time, it was presented as a play (though somewhat modified) at a Kabuki theatre. One day some of Asano's men happened to see the play. On the stage scene Enya who is identified with Asano is insulted, without any real reason by Kono in the part of Kira. All the spectators feel merciful toward Enya. Needless to say, Asano's men among the spectators are irritated with a sense of reality. At last one of them rushes to the theatre stage to kill the actor in the role of Kono, with the result that the play is completely spoiled by the unexpected intruder. In filming this sequence Kinugasa represented the so-called Kabuki methods in a well built cinema construction. As far as this sequence is concerned I cannot too much praise him. Y. Ogino. (End December, 1932. Japan.)