I love this…Jean Epstein ( Director, Film Theorist) wrote that the close-up is the soul of the camera, which is fundamental to the reception of the cinematic mental space and accessing the subliminal sphere of what lies below the threshold of conscious perception.
Epstein felt that the essence of the close-up is movement, the magnification of the cinematic image creates a vibration that induces a mobility of the perceptions of the mind. The close-up has the potential to reveal a dimension beyond the visible world, for Epstein the close-up is a sensory limit, a solid nucleus, a mysterious ‘transformer’, the eperdermis that reveals a tender lumosity, it is the diaphragm of the image.
Beyond the image is an undetectable moment, a feeling, a connection between the spectator and the image that invites a hidden response, in essence an affect on intensification, one that exceeds the dance of the frame. The close up is the portal for this transmission, the link across conceptual realms.
The close-up device provides an emotional intensity, a stream of consciousness, a mental space that vibrates on the consciousness of the spectator. Epstein calls it the power and scope of its whispering.....
Epstein, Jean. Magnification, The Senses, Photogenie. French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology. Vol1. 1907-1929.
