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 #:
000276
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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AROUND A NEW FILM BY DESLAW Mere rules of construction do not necessarily give the form of the successful modern* house. On a pure basis of construction Corbusier might have arrived at any other shape : but a significant modern house has an emotional basis in spite of the opinion of most appointed critics. Of course the choice of materials must effect structure : what is important to remember is that the front of Euston Station and Westminster Abbey are built of the same material. It remains a truth of the profounder criticism that constructional possibilities follow an emotion. Because significant building represents an organised outlook on the world, it is, in a sense, in conflict with Nature. Aspects of modern architecture become further and further removed from Nature because they are superior to Nature. Possibly the tiers of windows in a Corbusier house may suggest mountain ranges ; but they are organised by the mind of man. Nature is disorganised and is constantly trying experiments which do not come off : modern architecture has no place for the accidentals and eccentricities of Nature. Yet, the significant modern architect keeps the great fundamentals and orders them through his intelligence. To understand how deeply the modern architect penetrates in order to make his building a work of art (that is a work which holds before man what the world around means to him), one must realise that not only forms in substance but also forms in void are treated. Construction is not confined to solids which have voids between them, but equally to voids which have solids between them (art directors attention please !). The use of the solid to define the void indicates an appreciation of the Nature of modern physics, the cosmos in which the void plays so large a part. The modern physicist speaks of waves of probability and knows that the electron, by reason of its effects, can be traced back to the point where it should exist, where, in fact, it vanishes : the modern architect builds such a house as Corbusier has shaped. Certain similar consideration on the higher branches of modern architecture are specially brought to mind by the photos from Deslaw's latest picture, La Cite Universitaive de Paris (Cameraman : Jean Goreaud, assistant : N. Dulac). There is a special symphonic setting by university musicians of different nations. 'Ainsi une rhumba qui sera executee par des etudiants cubains, un morceau joue par des guitaristes argentins, des chants grecs, une danse samourai et des banduras ukrainiennes . . .' James Burford & Oswell Blakeston. 258