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 #:
000203
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:
November 07, 2023
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CLOSE UP 191 Democracy may have many faults but the democracies that have been longest established have the least record of wars. Look at Switzerland and the United States. The Crimea apart, we had for almost a century no European fighting. Autocracy (and autocracy can come from a system as well as from an individual) breeds discontent. Discontent discharges itself in war. Whether the danger come from a repressed and irritated people or whether it be deliberately provoked by a group, we are faced at this moment with a danger greater than at any time since 1918. Do not let the lessons of the last war be lost. Remember if mass excitement is loosed, few of us will be able to retain clear judgment or to stand against the pressure of mass feeling. Make your decision now while you have still time to work for whatever you believe. And remember that Austria, though a German speaking country, is struggling still to preserve her independence and that one should differentiate between the two countries and not group them together because of language similiarity. If one believes that there is never a justification for war, then it is one's duty to join a peace organisation and fight for peace, not through the signing of resolutions but through an attempt to help those who are now suffering because they believed in peace. One should try to spread knowledge of other nations among the many English in outlying villages who still believe a foreigner to be not quite as human as themselves. Remember that abstract words about peace mean very little : and that the first impressions that a child receives about another country will be lasting. If you know children find out if their geography lessons are interesting and what they think about other nations. But it would be advisable to join an organisation and keep in touch with it, not to come with conscientious objections discovered only on the outbreak of war. On the other hand, those who think that there are times when a resort to arms is justified, should decide what to do if there were war. What training have they? Do they know anything of modern warfare? Remember that the last war proved to us that we have no right to demand a man who does not believe in war, to be a soldier, for we failed in our war and we have all but failed in our peace. But we have the right to demand that everyone shall choose now, and not when struggle is upon us, whether he or she will fight or not. And if one does not wish to fight, one must think if all is being done now that can make peace possible? What I write applies to women equally with men. They will be conscripted in the next war; already there is labor conscription for them in Germany and it is said that a similar law would be applied upon the outbreak of hostilities in France. Let us decide what we will have. If peace, let us fight for it. And fight for it especially with cinema. By refusing to see films that are merely propaganda for any unjust system. Remember that close co-operation with the United States is needed if we are to preserve peace, and that constant sneers