Close Up (Mar-Dec 1933)

Page scan 00090 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 #:
00090
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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82 CLOSE LP THE LAKE OF THE WILD SWANS. " No, we did not hear the swans singing, and there was nothing romantic about it, neither perfume of flowers nor rays of sun dancing over the water, but plenty of swamp, mud and dirt ; and even the landscape cannot boast of any particular charms." " But I know you have been in Sweden on Lake Tokern, the dwelling place of the wild swans, the aristocrats among the birds, and I wish vou would tell me something about it." This conversation took place in one of the cutting rooms of the Neubabelsberg Ufa studios. There I got hold of him, Dr. Ulrich K. T. Schulz, head of the Ufa Scandinavian expedition. I wanted to hear something about singing swans, their shining waves of white feathers, about flowers swinging over the water, I wanted to be told the romantic legends of mysterious Lake Tokern. " If you fancy a tale of romance and a swan's song, then vou are bound to be disappointed. But if you want to know what Lake Tokern really looks like, I shall be pleased to tell you. " There are many small villages around the borders of this lake, which is about miles long and 2 miles wide. It is extremelv shallow, for its greatest depth measures hardly one foot. The ground consists of mud, which has a depth of many yards. The surface of the lake is covered with water-plants of all kinds. It's a regular paradise for the swans, as in the mud they can easily find plenty of food. Thev are verv shv, these birds, and can only be approached with the utmost difficulty. Bv means of shallow boats we constructed a pontoon, which we covered with reed and rush-grass. Flatly stretched out, the camera carefullv hidden under reeds, we crept on the swans. So we succeeded in photographing them at closest range. We watched breeding birds and proud parents with three or four, sometimes even six or seven voung ones, and we caught most wonderful and interesting scenes with our camera. We also flew across the lake in an airplane and secured good specimen shots from above. " ' Enchanted Lake ' it is called by the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. It was tried several times to drain the lake, because they expected to get fertile soil for agricultural purposes. But money and efforts have been in vain. Gasses always bubbled up from the ground, and soon again mud and swamp were covered by the ground-water. Is there anvthing else vou want to know?" " I confess that I am very much disillusioned. In my imagination everything had been so entirely different. But let me ask you another question : Do the swans stay in the North during the winter?" " Oh no, as soon as the first frost shows, the birds start in large flocks to the South, as far as Africa. The farmers in the villages told us it is the most overpowering sight to see the birds rushing off in majestic flight with their great wings spread out wide.