While the concept of the close-up feels commonplace to viewers now, its introduction to film was nothing short of revolutionary. For theater-goers who were used to seeing stage productions from afar, films brought audiences closer to the actors than ever before through the use of the close-up. While many theorists covered the close-up because of its novelty, perhaps the most interesting among those were Lev Kuleshov and Jean Epstein, due to their direct relationships with the technique through the production of their own films. However, theorists such as Bela Balazs were among the first to write about film critically, inserting an angle from a critic, not a director. All three theorists understand the necessity for the close-up in film, but…