It’s in black and white, of course. In some respects this is the most important thing you need to know. Reason being, if you’re of a certain age, you might think of Control as the story of relatively recent history. This is Joy Division, after all, and Ian Curtis in particular. We’ve already been privy to one (albeit oblique) cinematic retelling of the Joy Division story in Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, why do we need another? What Anton Corbjin – previously renowned for his photography more than anything else, although his video for Joy Division’s re-released ‘Atmosphere’ has attained iconic status now – has done, with cinematographer Martin Ruhe, is this: you might think this is a story that you know but it’s not and you don’t.
Control is a period piece in a world that we have all grown to forget. This is a kitchen sink world – the story of Ian Curtis as a make-up wearing, girlfriend-stealing adolescent through an early, hasty marriage and into burgeoning rock success, played out against a world more familiar to viewers of A Taste of Honey and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (albeit a world that ditches the grime of kitchen sink in favour of the pure line favoured by the likes of Kiyomi Kuroda in Onibaba). In many ways, the film is as much the story of Ian Curtis’ beleaguered wife, Debbie (on whose book the film is based) as it is about Curtis himself, and both Sam Riley and Samantha Morton excel, with the pair of them living a life framed by polarity: between touring and real life, between success and sustained poverty and between love and marriage. This last reaches an apotheosis in Curtis’ affair with starstruck fanzine writer Honore Annik, poor doomed Curtis unable to extricate himself from the path he was set on. The only saving grace, according to the band’s manager Rob Gretton (an outstanding performance from Toby Kebbell)? ‘At least you’re not the lead singer in The Fall…’
Control is both bleak and beautiful. As with United 93, you can’t help but wish for a Hollywood climax to rewrite history. Corbijn’s great triumph, then, is in making the tragedy of Curtis’ suicide still feel tragic whilst at the same time, poignantly, fashioning a film of morbid beauty.
Directed by acclaimed photographer and video director Anton Corbijn, Control features an incredible lead performance from newcomer Sam Riley as Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the influential Manchester band Joy Division.
The film follows the band as it rises to fame, culminating with Ian's tragic suicide, aged 23. Inspired by the biographical account Touching from a Distance, penned by Curtis’ widow Deborah Curtis, Control recalls how Ian’s aspirations reached beyond the trappings of small town life in 1970s northern England and delicately examines what led him to take his own life by depicting the forces and conflicts that beset him.
One of the most talked about films in the 2007 film festival season, Control stunned film lovers with its honest beauty. Like Joy Division’s music, it is truly tragic, moving and tender.
Atonement
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Control
