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 #:
00097
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 89 girlhood was the work of G. W. " Billy " Bitzer, the cameraman, of whose value Miss Gish long ago expressed her appreciation. The Paine book may be characterized by the legend he quotes from Allene Talmey : " What are you looking at, Lillian?" Mrs. Gish has asked for years. " Nothing, Mother, just looking !" H. A. P. Writing for the Films, bv L'Estrange Fawcett, Sir Isaac Pitt & Sons, Ltd. 3/6 net. A useful \itt\e vade mecum which will make depressing and even sickening reading for those who hope to bring ideas to the film. Mr. Fawcett's information is, unfortunately, all true, and the impartiality of his telling in no way reduces the feeling of horror inspired by the morass of childish vulgarity in which commercial films are conceived, shaped, censored, and shown. His list of unequivocal and approved subjects for film writing — it must be read to be believed ! Yet how true it is ! What a world ! For those who are not fully aware of what they are likely to encounter in their uphill climb to success as a scenario writer, it will be kill or cure. Is a Revolution in Method. Coming? forms the last chapter. It is deductive but not verv hopeful. How could it be? K. M. BOOKS IN A BUNDLE. " Do ring me up, I have a telephone now." " Oh! ves? Any particular number?" That condenses some of the futility of life, but little of the futility of life in film novels. Actual working in of details about studio work gives an excuse for working out of time-rubbed (hair-over-collar effect) plots. A pitv ! a little more effort and the genuine film-land would make a worthwhile book. There is the parable to shock — the tale of the lady in the caravan who had to go to the lavatory on a bicycle because there were no trees for miles around. Yet . . . . ! Film Lady, by James Wedgewood Drawbell (Collins. 7/6) deserves an ivy leaf to show it's a good effort, just as a poet draws an ivy leaf on her best sonnets to help editors. Lighter scenes are not shrill and the conversation is easy : intenser moments clatter to the bottom like a Spanish rack-and-thumbscrew railway. Monica in the Talkies, by Richard Starr (Sampson Low. 7/6) gives the vertical rather than the horizontal approach. The backgrounds have not the authentic quality of Mr. Drawbell's . . . . It is amusing to see how characters from film books wander into the new novels. Especially author-favoured is the film star with two secretaries who, when progressing in a taxi, travels at third hand. Richard Oke, however, in Wanton Boys (Gollancz. 7/6) managed to introduce a G