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 #:
000100
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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92 CLOSE UP a narrow circle of initiates. For it is not a question of bringing exclusive ideas to the masses, but to dive instead into popular life, and to discover there sensitive and human motives. Ch. Dekeukeleire, always the poet, ends bv requiring that this " trust " in brains, this submission of machine and spirit to commercial ends be suppressed, and that the cinematographic industry be reorganised on a human basis. Henri Poulaille, in L'Age Ingrat du Cinema, (Cahiers Bleux) insists upon the socialogical value of cinematography and shows the disorder that has existed since the arrival of sound. G. W. Pabst stated recently that it is impossible for him to make the films he wants, either in Germany or in France. A narrow nationalism, chauvinism, futility and restricted vision are ever obstacles in his path. Ch. Dekeukeleire has reason therefore for his protests and we cannot do other than approve them. All the same it would seem impossible to lower any bridge between his ideals and the commercial and industrial reality. So long as capital is invested in the cinema in the same way as it is invested in the manufacture of tins of sardines, films ought to be exploited in a commercial way. The onlv possibilitv to establish a film art, is for those who love cinema and thev are many, to found a collective and international organisation which would permit of rational activity. Let the cinema dividends go in what direction they will, provided that lovers of the screen mav be able to satisfy their wishes. The full development of the film industry can be furthered only in constructing beside the big studios, well equipped workshops for the independent groups and for all those able to make trulv good films. Freddy Chev alley. Jahrbuch fur Photo graphie, Kinematographie und Reproduktionsverfahren fur die Jahre, 1928-1929. Edited by Hofrat Dr. J. M. Eder, E. Kuchinka and C. Emmermann. XXXI. Band, I. Teil. [Wilh. Knapp, Halle (Saale), 1931.] Price: RM. 18. This work is so well known that it need not be introduced to the experts of photography, cinematography and technics of reproduction. The yearbook could not be published during the vears of the war and so a huge material was piled up to be sorted and worked up ; the thirtv-first volume, the first part of which has already been published reaches to the vear 1929 and gives an account of anything new in this sphere. The yearbook suffered a great loss when E. Kuchinka, one of its editors, who had worked on the " Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt " in Vienna, died in 1930. Bui the reputation of C. Emmermann, his successor, guarantees the unchanged quality and thoroughness of that standard-work. T. W.