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 #:
000172
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Global Cinema, Switzerland, and Early 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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160 CLOSE UP Most people will agree that Professor Einstein is to be unreservedly congratulated on his choice both of subject and object. His letter, in which he modestly explains that he " can do little more than seek to clarify the question at issue," says much for his own insight and his capacity to appreciate at its true value Freud's work. Freud's reply runs true to form. That is to say, it possesses the qualities of vigorous and concise (not to say condensed) statement, depth of thought, and courageous pessimism, with which we are familiar from his writings. There is little or nothing essential here which is not expressed or implied in previous work, but that does not detract from the interest afforded by a more concentrated expression of Freud's views on the topic of war at the present time. The deepest and strongest obstacle to peace lies in the aggressive or destructive instinct in the individual, " which is seldom given the attention that its importance warrants." How important it is may be surmised from statements such as that of Ernest Jones to the effect that it is difficult to over-estimate the quantity of sadism present in infants or that of M. Klein that " in children of every age it is very hard even for deep analysis to mitigate the severity of the super-ego." The instinct of destruction must find some outlet, and it has alternative paths open to it. It may be directed to the external world, or it can turn inward on the self. When the latter happens too extensively " it is no trivial matter, rather a positively morbid state of things ; whereas the diversion of the destructive impulse towards the external world must have beneficial effects." We might even say that the turning inward of sadism is so little a trivial matter that, if the factor of dread of the form future wars will take helps (as Freud thinks it may) to put an end to war in the near future, we may vet be forced to regret the perfection of the methods of destruction as depriving us of so useful a form of relief from internal tension. Making for peace we have the " erotic " instincts (in the wide sense in which Freud uses the term) and, from another angle, the psychic changes which accompany the cultural development of mankind (civilisation). Possibly the publication of this book is the most important achievement of the League to date. The translation (by Stuart Gilbert) approaches perfection. But why the limited edition, and why 6 shillings? Must we still be secretive about the secrets of the soul ? H. A. M.