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 #:
000214
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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202 CLOSE UP for the same distance as sound and not merely 5 or 100 miles as stated by Mr. Go'ldwyn. The transmission of ordinary sound broadcasts is, at present, in an awful muddle with conferences of experts vainly trying to solve the problems of national jealousies and keeping the broadcasting stations of various nations from drowning out each other. The B.B.C. could, for example, erect a television station at great cost and Russia could erect a super-giant next door to them on the aerial wavelength, capable of wrecking all their television transmissions. This they have done with the new 500 kw. giant station which is next door to the Daventry National. With all these things to consider it will be at least 18 months before anysane financier can be interested in television. Now, as regards a good television receiver for home use, my estimate is that when they do come on the market they will start at somewhere between £350 and £500 each. Television will come, to be sure, but it must first work out these many problems, entirely without any high pressure promotion jolts. If Mr. Goldwyn is getting ready to back a television venture, thinking that he knows more than the people who have spent a fortune experimenting with it, including my company and others, this is his own affair. If he wants to lose his shirt — well it is his own shirt. In the meantime, however, the publication of his optimistic views is doing an incalculable injury to both the cinema and radio industries. The members of the cinema industry, being accustomed to clever Mr. Goldwyn's many successes will hesitate before embarking on new ventures and this pursuing itself in a vicious circle will, incidentally, throw many people out of work. It will harm the radio industry in that every prospective purchaser of a new set who read the article is going to get the idea that television is right here on the doorstep, and, thus the sale of radio sets will decrease. Why drag these red herrings across the trail ? Three years ago the American newspapers had Philco show them some of the things they had done with Television, and then a story was spread over the front pages of every daily newspaper from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts, that television would be on the market in two* or three months. This caused the failure of a number of small manufacturers and dealers. Philco's statement that it would be at least five years before television would be a practical home consideration, and probably longer, received, as most other unoptimistic but truthful statements, mere two or three paragraphs on the inside page. That was three years ago and I think that we can look forward to better radio programmes with clearer reception, and better motion pictures, for the next five years without any interruption from television.