Close Up (Mar-Dec 1933)

Page scan 00092 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 #:
00092
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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84 CLOSE I P After much polishing of spectacles he finally achieves the followingspeech : " Udarniki — Competition — Hip, Hip, Hooray!" Tremendous enthusiasm. The film closes in the spirit of " American Technique plus Revolutionary Enthusiasm," symbolished in the handclasp of Zukharov and Cline. Men and Jobs marks a big advance in Soviet sound recording, which seems to improve steadily. The story is interesting both for its content, and for the types, who are actual workers. Macheret has handled his material and characters with a nice sense of humour. Thus the workers and the foreign technician are made to appear " regular fellows " who, separated at first by language difficulties and different social environments achieve finally a complete understanding. The copy shewn in London was received from America where Amkino had inserted English titles to explain the Russian dialogue. R. Bond. A TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT. The Impassive Footman, an A.R.P. film, directed bv Basil Dean, which does not achieve greatness, is noteworthv for a remarkablv clever impression of going under an anaesthetic. The patient's talkativeness calls forth the comment " He's a talkative fellow " ; and the sound consists of the phrase " A talkative fellow " repeated rhvthmicallv with increasing speed and volume till a maximum followed by a decrescendo . Accompanving the sound is a picture of the heads of the surgeons as seen from below by the patient. The heads sweep into view and out again, sweep back, rotate rapidlv and fade out. The combined effect of sound and picture in mv own case was an unmistakable sensation of swooning : and my companion, who had the advantage of me of experiencing an anaesthetic, felt the same reaction. A second sitting through the sequence confirmed the first impression. It is, of course, impossible to convev the effect in words; but I may add that it was much more convincing than similar experiments in impressionism — for example, that seen on the stage (with the advantage of colour) in " The Adding Machine " when Zero " sees red." M. S. AN AVANT-GARDE FILM SHOW IN VIENNA. The chance of seeing Avant-Garde Films in Vienna is rare. I can remember only one occasion in connection with a photo-exhibition a few years ago. The more thankful should we be to those who arranged a show of Avant-Garde films in a Viennese " Volksbildungsheim "; how great is the interest and the need for good, artistic films, was shown by the fact