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 #:
000222
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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210 CLOSE UP MANIFESTO ON EISEXSTEIN'S MEXICAN FILM Printed in its entirety ; prepared by Experimental Cinema. " THE XOTIOX OF ANYONE DOING THE MONTAGE OF EISENSTEIN'S FILM EXCEPT EISENSTEIN HIMSELF IS OUTRAGEOUS TO ALL THE CANONS OF ART. NO ECONOMIC SITUATION JUSTIFIES SUCH AN AESTHETIC CRIME."— Waldo Frank. " OF THE GRANDEUR OF THE UNDAMAGED ORIGINAL (THE LAST SUPPER) WE CAN ONLY GUESS . . . DREADFUL RESTORATIONS WERE MADE BY HEAVY-HANDED MEDDLERS; SOME IMBECILE DOMINICAN MONKS CUT A DOOR THROUGH THE LOWER CENTRAL PART ; NAPOLEON'S DRAGOONS STABLED THEIR HORSES IN THE REFECTORY AND THREW THEIR BOOTS AT JUDAS ISCARIOT ; MORE RESTORATIONS AND MORE DISFIGUREMENTS. . ."—Thomas Craven, MEN OF ART. TO OUR READERS In the 4th issue of EXPERIMEXTAL CIXEMA, published last year, a great deal of space was devoted to a film epic entitled " QUE VIVA MEXICO!," which S. M. Eisenstein, the renowned Soviet director was making at that time. There were two articles on the film, one of them an authorized interpretation by Agustin Aragon Leiva, Eisenstein's special assistant throughout the production. In addition, there were ten pages of still reproductions, which, to quote Laurence Stallings, gave a " foretaste " of the film. The editors of EXPERIMEXTAL CIXEMA were more than merely enthusiastic about it : they had been given a copy of the scenario by Eisenstein himself and they were convinced that " QUE VIVA MEXICO !" would materialize, as no film had ever done, the highest principles of the cinema as a fine art. There is now being released on the world market a movie called "THUNDER OVER MEXICO," which is what it is : a fragmentary and entirely conventional version of Eisenstein's original majestic conception. The story behind this commercialized version is without doubt the greatest tragedy in the history of films and one of the saddest in the history of art. It represents the latest instance of a film director, in this case a genius of the first rank, forfeiting a masterpiece in a hopeless struggle against sordid commercial interests. WE DECRY THIS ILLEGITIMATE VERSION OF " QUE VIVA MEXICO!" AXD DEXOUXCE IT FOR WHAT IT IS— A MERE VULGARIZATION OF EISENSTEIN'S ORIGINAL CONCEPTION PUT FORTH IX HIS XAME IX ORDER TO CAPITALIZE ON HIS RENOWN AS A CREATIVE ARTIST. WE DENOUNCE THE CUTTING OF "QUE VIVA MEXICO!" BY PROFESSIONAL HOLLYWOOD CUTTERS AS AN UNMITIGATED MOCKERY OF EISENSTEIN'S INTENTION. WE DENOUNCE " THUNDER