Close Up (Mar-Dec 1933)

Page scan 00095 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 #:
00095
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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CLOSE UP 87 one in spirit. But in Flowers and Trees, when the forest awakens to soft music, the tenderness that is to be the atmosphere is captured visually by the soft tones of the unfolding flowers. When the old blasted oak disturbs an idyll between two other trees by starting a forest fire, the red flame is more dramatic than the black splodge that would have done for it in the plain black and white drawings. The black-eved susans in this film have definitely increased star-value, through being in colour, and the fishes in the second symphony, Neptune, are more fantastic and less burlesque than they would have been plain. Colour undoubtedly is a help in the Disney world. His films now are one step nearer a child's picture book come to life. Humour and drawing remain childish — colour adds, and detracts nothing. As forerunners, they are interesting; as symphonies, Flowers and Trees and Neptune are the best he has done. One can see therefrom what others might do . . . . as usual. It is, incidentally, worth noticing that Disney's 31 films for the coming year will cost ±'160,000 to produce. Four years ago, 20 people were employed making them ; now, there are over 200. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon was made in a garage; to-day, he is housed in " a half-million dollar plant in the heart of Hollywood." R. H. A FILM SCHOOL IN GENEVA. The cinema must be reformed, is the praiseworthy basis on which is laid the ideology and curriculum of the new Marie Lachenal Cinema School, situated at No. 4, route de Malagnou, Geneva. This school is open to persons of all nationalities and all ages, and its year is divided into three terms — 1st October to 31st December, 1st January to 31st March, and 1st April to 30th June. At the end of each scholastic year, public auditions of short films made by the school will be given. The reform in question which begins by unifying into an idee maitresse the work of all participants and the use of their function, proceeds to' develop the idea at the expense of any personal element — in much the same way, it would appear, as the State Institute of Cinema at Moscow. A course can be taken in each of the following branches — Acting, Music, Scenario Writing, Stage Directing, Scenic Art. Courses for the training of Ensembles are established in order, to give to each one the opportunity to benefit by work accomplished in other branches. Full particulars can be obtained from the Secretary at the above address. Mr. A. Y. Pilichowski explains his sketch of a cinema of the future : " What seems required for a cinema to be truly cinematic is a more immediate contact between the screen and the audience. My suggestion is for a