Customer Reviews

NEW Control - Control (2007) (Blu-ray)

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4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ever since Ian Curtis, lead singer of the British band Joy Division, died in 1980, he has achieved the iconic status of an emerging artist showing signs of brilliance before meeting an early, tragic end. In Curtis' case, he committed suicide on the eve of his band's first American tour. His brief life has already been depicted on film in Michael Winterbottom's fast `n' loose look at the Manchester music scene of the 1970s and 1980s, 24 Hour Party People, but it was only for the first half of that film. Control draws most of its content from Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division, the memoirs of Ian's wife, Deborah, and is directed by music video maker Anton Corbijn. He not only directed the video for their song, "Atmosphere," but also shot some of the most memorable photographs of the band, making him the ideal choice to helm this film.

There is an audio commentary by director Anton Corbijn. With his thick accent, he's a little hard to follow at times but manages to cover the usual topics: casting choices, shooting on location, and so on. He praises the performances of Sam Riley and Samantha Morton while also pointing out technical details, like how the concert scenes where shot with hand-held cameras and everything else was done with steadicams. This track is a little on the dull side but Corbijn does impart interesting factoids and it was clearly a labour of love for him.

"The Making of Control" takes a look at how the film came together. Corbijn moved to England because of Joy Division and took iconic photos of the band. So, he had an emotional connection to the material. His black and white photos influenced his decision to shoot the film in a similar style. The actors who played the members of Joy Division talk about the challenge of playing people who are still alive, learning to play musical instruments, and the songs. This is an excellent featurette filled with loads of interesting information.

"In Control: A Conversation with Anton Corbijn" tends to repeat some of the information from the commentary track and the making of featurette. The director talks about how he discovered Joy Division's music and how he eventually met them. He touches upon how they shot in Ian's hometown for authenticity.

"Extended Live Concert Performances from the Film" allows you to see "Transmission", "Leaders of Men", and "Candidate" in their entirety.

In a nice touch, there are the videos for "Transmission," a powerful rendition done for live TV with a riveting performance by Ian, Corbijn's video for "Atmosphere" that is haunting as it was done after Ian's death, and The Killers' cover of "Shadowplay" which is surprisingly effective.

Also included is a "Still Gallery" with photographs from the film.

Finally, there are "Promotional Materials," trailers for the film, a blurb for Deborah's book about Ian, the soundtrack, and so on.

A lot of great films came out last year, 2007--No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Lives of Others, and so on--but I honestly can't think of a better one than this: "Control."

This is a gorgeous and skillfully done film--all awash in silvery starkness, in luminous black and white--and all feeling so genuine and so far from anything fake or phony. I am not the suicidal singer of a New Wave band, I am not in love with a French journalist, and I do not think I married too early, but watching this, the movie really put me inside the man's skin.

"Control" tells the story of Ian Curtis, Joy Division's ill-fated lead singer--as well as his unfortunate wife, his band, his manager, his label, and his lover--and it does so without resorting to making it a slick biopic or a phony depiction of celebrity. It is one of the realest feeling films I have ever seen, and yet it doesn't sacrifice anything compelling or filmic to be so. The story plows ahead with amazing music and a formidable drive, with scenes that are artfully shot and gorgeous to behold.

The film's final scenes are indelible, cut forever into my mind, and the feeling the film invokes is powerful. I have never felt more genuinely punk than after seeing this--leaving the theater, I wanted to rip benches out of the ground and attack speeding cars head-on. More than that, I wanted to walk back into the theater, get another ticket, and watch it again. (I'm not really that into Joy Division either--at least I wasn't before seeing this.)

"Control": Best Movie of 2007. And Best Music Movie in Decades. So well-made and flawlessly executed that it couldn't ultimately depress me--it could only excite me. It's amazing.

I'm a Big Joy Division fan going back to the early 80's. While I can appreciate director Anton Corbijn's personal tribute to JD's lead singer IAN CURTIS, the film is just too Dark and Excessively Slow to recommend to the average viewer.

Corbijn's stark B&W photography (He was a close friend to the original Band and held many a photo shoot with them..Their 1st two album covers were Black-then White. A third, Grey!) perfectly captures the atmosphere of dank Manchester, England in the 1970's. Sam Reilly is Amazing as Ian and mimics Ian's voice and performance mannerisms to-a-T. Samantha Morton (Minority Report, Woody Allen's Sweet & Lowdown, Elizabeth - The Golden Age) is heartbreakingly good as Ian's suffering wife. The actors playing JD band mates are noteworthy and seem to play their own instruments which certainly add to the realism. However, the film just plods on at a Snail's pace. Maybe this was the director's ploy, to depress us Slowly into Submission given the nature of Ian's illness and make us feel what Ian felt. Any solid JD fan knows that although their music could be Dark & Challenging, it was never Boring or Depressing. Although we're given very small glimpses into the creative psyche, recording and performance of the band, CONTROL is really the slight, personal story of Ian Curtis their lead singer. You'll rarely see much in the way of lengthy music clips here.

A better place to start is Grant Gee's new documentary JOY DIVISION just released by TWC as well. It paints a much broader picture of the Band and still maintains Ian's story as its main Focus. The music and performance clips of the Band are amazing and the Doc rarely drags. It features extensive interviews by remaining band members (nka NEW ORDER) and Control director Corbjin.

This film is based on Deborah Curtis' biography and so this "Ian Curtis" is the Ian Curtis that she knew and Control in most respects adheres to her interpretation of his life. But it should be noted that Deborah Curtis knew but one side of Ian Curtis' story, her side. And like any other point of view that might have been chosen to tell this story, this one is limited & distorted. The writer of the screenplay is fully aware of the fact that Deborah's perspective is a limited one (as all of our perspectives are) and the screenplay makes some attempt (though not enough) to find the Ian that Deborah did not know, and that maybe no one knew. To achieve this screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh balances Deborah's own remembrance with the remembrance of other key figures in Ian's life (parents, band mates, Belgian girlfriend Annik) to give us a more rounded look at what it might have been like to be Ian Curtis. Unfortunately, these additional perspectives do not amount to as much as one would have liked them to as Ian was apparently not particularly close or open with parents or band mates. (The film rarely shows Ian interacting with either.) And the girlfriend just seems like a very pretty, very fresh, very young smiling face. Most likely the band has their own story to tell, as does the girlfriend Annik. To Deborah, Ian Curtis was a husband and so her story is one largely dominated by domestic squables. After the fourth or fifth round of domestic argument the film begins to feel like a film about marriage and not about music. The over-reliance on Deborah's perspective/biography begins to feel like a liability before the second hour of this two hour biopic begins, and the second hour is almost entirely devoted to the last moments of marital woe that, according to Deborah, sparked the final act. But there is so much more to this story than the one that Deborah has to tell. In addition to Ian the husband, there is Ian the singer and performer. And, most importantly to fans, there is the Ian Curtis that wrote some of the most austere and hypnotic and compelling rock music ever recorded. This is what is really missing form the film: a sense of where the music was coming from. Certainly some lyrics can be explained as autobiographical confessions of self-loathing and regret but some are comments and critiques on modern life.

To listeners of Joy Division's postpunk sound what was immediately alluring was that it sounded nothing like punk. Punk was manic and Joy Division was subdued. The sound was hollow but hypnotic and the voice was full of romantic longings and yearnings for some kind of transcendence but the romantic longing was always accompanied by the feeling that there was nothing to be done with these feelings. If punk was about irreverence and having a rebellious larf in the face of authority, Joy Division was about looking for something to revere and finding that modern life gave man very little to revere. In the face of utter hopelessness, the only grace to be found was in the music itself because the music offered trance-like beauties unavailable in real life (Unknown Pleasures). To fans, Ian & the band were the rarest of things, the expression of a genuinely original sensibility/musical vision. Unfortunately, this is the part of Ian's story that Deborah has the least access to--the writer Ian and the stage Ian is someone she barely knew--, and so it is simply not dealt with. We get no sense of what music meant to Ian nor what he was looking for in it, and without some kind of understanding of the music it is very difficult to understand Ian. Instead we get a story about a relationship and a cliched one at that. Sympathetic as we are with Deborah, rock wives rarely lead happy lives, and in biopics they almost always look like obstacles to their more talented husbands artistic urges & drives. Thats true here as well. And sad as the relationship between Ian and Deborah was it is simply one part of a larger story.

The other perspective on display here is the directors. As one might suspect from that very romantic film poster, director Anton Corbijn knows Ian as a photographic object. And, as a visual object itself, the film is primarily a chance for Corbijn to display his own considerable gifts for grim yet starkly beautiful composition. From both the still photographs that he took of the actual band circa 1980 (which should have been included in the DVD extra gallery) and from the film itself, one can understand that Corbijn felt a deep connection to Ian & Ian's unique romantic/existential sensibility and vision. As compelling and convincing as the film sometimes is, it is a work of art made by an artist that has his own ideas about what made Ian what he was and what made the music what it was. But, like all great artists, Ian was more than just the sum of his many influences (William Wordsworth, Lou Reed, Brain Eno, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, Apocalypse Now, Werner Herzog...) and so no mere visual record of these influences and sources from which he drew will ever fully explain the artists own vision. Artists recognize greatness in others but the good ones always transcend their sources. Ian Curtis' true sources of inspiration are & will remain mysterious, no film can really know or show what Ian was or knew or what he felt when listening to a favorite song or reading a favorite book; no one can know what Ian was to Ian. Biopics are intriguing and frustrating because they are, at best, speculative. Though the film faithfully represents Deborah's version of things, the key moments in this life are ones that no one had any access to but Ian (how does anyone really know what he watched, or listened to, or thought in those last moments?). Faced with unknowability, it is our nature to be curious and to speculate but one should not mistake speculation for truth. As a result, the most valuable part of this DVD to those fans of Ian the artist and his formidable band mates (given short shrift in this film) will be the actual footage (not included in the actual film but included as a DVD extra along with Corbijn's 1988 video for Atmosphere and the Killers video for Shadowplay) of the real Joy Division playing Transmission.

"Control" shows many details that will jump out at anyone familiar with Joy Division's history. The young Ian Curtis wears a jacket with the word "HATE" drawn on the back. Bernard Sumner yells, "You all forgot Rudolf Hess." Ian watches "Stroszek" and listens to Iggy Pop, as he must. Yet "Control" is not really about Joy Division. There is not much music; the film makes no mention, none whatsoever, of the band's second and final album. The actors went to the trouble of learning to play some of the songs, but they can't help sounding amateurish -- if you haven't heard the songs before, you are unlikely to understand why there was anything special about them.

Moreover, the other band members come across as louts. This provides the film's few memorable lines of dialogue, but seems unfair. Watching "Control," one might believe that Ian had no interaction with his own band. He is shown attacking Bernard in the scene that leads to his first epileptic fit, but he is never shown talking to the guys about anything. They all act quite cold to each other. They have little love of music; they think The Buzzcocks are "okay," but show no enthusiasm. Ian is shown offering his services as singer to the other guys as if he were a total stranger. One wonders why they accepted.

Look, just because the film has Joy Division in it doesn't mean that everyone involved has to be an icy death machine. Even Tony Wilson, that charismatic bon vivant and con man, is a gloomy Gus in this film. Watch 24 Hour Party People -- it is not pleasant viewing for a Joy Division fan, but it shows the sleazy, yet exciting and adventurous atmosphere surrounding the burgeoning Manchester scene. People knew there was something good in the air, and they were excited about it. That's why they spent their free time doing it. "Control" shows none of that. Producer Martin Hannett is never mentioned by name. Instead, the spotlight shines on manager Rob Gretton, who steals the show simply by swearing a lot.

Okay, fine, the film doesn't have to be about Joy Division. But it's not really about one man's anguish, either. The first half of the film gives the impression that the director's knowledge of dialogue and human interaction derives entirely from French New Wave films. Scene after scene consists primarily of "smoking cigarettes with existential meaning," to the point where it is unintentionally comical.

For example, the film opens with Ian reciting a verse from "Heart And Soul," and shows him purchasing an LP. But that's all it does to show his attraction to poetry and music. Why was he interested in these things? Okay, he didn't like to show his feelings, but every earnest young man, especially one with an introverted character, has numerous pedantic opinions on rock music, and greatly enjoys holding forth on them. The film shows Ian and Deborah attending the Sex Pistols concert, but they show no interest in the music. Ian gives no sign of excitement, except perhaps some slightly more animated head-nodding. In another scene, he flatly recites from Wordsworth, one of the least edgy poets in the English language. What's the big deal, why is he interested in Wordsworth? More importantly, why do his friends listen to him? Do they view him as an authority on intellectual matters?

The courtship between Deborah and Ian is so bizarre that it's funny. Deborah is shown to have a boyfriend; she pouts in front of Ian, who gives her no emotional cues. They both look very bored at the concert, when suddenly, they leap into each other's arms. Starting immediately, the boyfriend disappears and is never heard from again, and Ian proposes to Deborah in the very next scene. This also is peculiar. Ian, both in the film and in real life, seemed to have little taste for family life and fatherhood ("with children my time is so wastefully spent," he cruelly wrote). Yet here, he's the one who initiates every move. He proposes, and he also asks Deborah to have a baby. It is not unrealistic that a man might have an idealized view of marriage, and then become dissatisfied with the reality, but that's precisely the sort of thing you have to carefully explore if you're making a feature film.

But here? You honestly have to wonder why the man is depressed. In the early scenes, he's a dashing mop-top with a manly chin, who wins Deborah's heart without the slightest effort. There is some indication later that he is distraught by the diagnosis of epilepsy, but this quickly takes a backseat to the love triangle with Annik Honore, which Ian himself initiates of his own free will. The only logical conclusion would seem to be that Ian always had a self-absorbed death wish, and willfully ignored his slavishly devoted wife (traces of Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves"). Oh, and he also sang a few songs in the process.

Toward the end, Ian laments, "I give them everything on stage and they want more." He says that no one can understand how his performances affect him. The film gives no indication, prior to this line, that this is the case. Ian's performances just seem to be a mild distraction from his usual moping; a distraction that he engages in just so he can have something to do.

There are two possibilities. Either a) Anton Corbijn is a hack, or b) everything good about Ian Curtis had already been expressed in his music, and thus there is no point in a film about his short life. Either way, there is little reason to watch "Control."

Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn made "Control" about the man and the band that brought him to England: Ian Curtis of Joy Division, which carried on as New Order after Curtis' death in 1980. "Control" follows Curtis' life from 1973-1980, starting with his high school days in Macclesfield with future wife Debbie (Samantha Morton), through joining a band with Bernard Sumner (James Anthony Pearson) and Peter Hook (Joe Anderson) in 1976, to Joy Division's success -having added drummer Stephen Morris (Harry Treadaway). All the while, Ian (Sam Riley) suffered increasingly from the crushing stress of the band and family, exacerbated by side effects from his medications for inadequately uncontrolled epilepsy. Anton Corbijn knew Curtis briefly, having photographed the band, so "Control" feels like a personal and heartfelt project.

The black-and-white photography, Sam Riley's resemblance to Ian Curtis, and the music are striking. The music is actually performed by the actors, whose instruments are plugged in and microphones turned on. Riley has limited experience as an actor; he is a singer, and a darned good one for Joy Division's post-punk sound. They sound good. The gig scenes are electric. "Control" is black-and-white, because the band's visual history is almost entirely black-and-white. It's beautiful. The film is longer than it needs to be but doesn't feel prolonged. It spends time establishing Ian Curtis' ambition, talent, temperament, and then his deteriorating state of mind. Sam Riley's performance is surprisingly charismatic and sympathetic without ever being sentimental. Toby Kebbell provides some comic relief as manager Rob Gretton. "Control" is the story of a modern poet and one of the most memorable music-themed films I've seen.

The DVD (Weinstein 2008): "The Making of Control" (23 min) interviews the director about his inspiration and decisions, the cast about playing real people, and writer Matt Greenhalgh about his process. "In Control: A Conversation with Anton Corbijn" (13 min) discusses the director's relationship with the band, his view of Curtis, and casting the film. "Extended Live Concert Performances from the Film" (9 min) offers 3 performances. "Music Videos" are "Transmission" from 1979 (3 1/2 min), "Atmosphere" (4 min) from 1988, and a cover of "Shadowplay" (4 min) by The Killers from 2007. There is a Still Gallery of 49 photos, and "Promotional Materials" include 2 theatrical trailers. The director's audio commentary is constant and informative, although Anton Corbijn mumbles a bit. He talks about locations, filming, actors, the real Ian Curtis, and the reasons behind his choices. Subtitles are available for the film in English SDH and Spanish. Dubbing available in French.

"Control" is a biopic about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the 1970's British rock band Joy Division, who killed himself in 1980 immediately before the group was to embark on its first American tour. The movie chronicles Curtis' early days in Manchester, the formation and rise of the band, his unhappy marriage, his serial philandering, his uncontrollable epilepsy, and his lifelong battle with depression.

One might be tempted, looking at the bareboned detailing of his life, to ask if there is really anything new here. And indeed, Curtis' story seems to follow a fairly standard arc for the lives of artists in general and rock musicians in particular (though there doesn`t seem to be a whole lot of illicit drug use going on in this case), and as such the movie doesn't show us much of anything we haven't already seen countless times before in similar works. Yet, "Control" is so cool, understated and restrained in its handling of the material that it succeeds in drawing us into the lives of these characters in spite of the over-familiarity of the tale. The conflicts are real and the emotions raw, particularly when dealing with Curtis' rocky relationship with his wife, Deborah, who loved Ian unconditionally but could never get him to reciprocate those feelings, partly because Ian had fallen in love with a Belgian fan he met while on tour.

In a beautifully controlled and thoughtful performance, Sam Riley poignantly captures the sadness that seems to lie ever present at the core of Curtis' being, while Samantha Morton conveys the almost desperate state of a woman too much in love to realize, until it is too late perhaps, that she isn`t receiving love in return (the Matt Greenhalgh screenplay is based largely on Deborah`s memoirs chronicling their time together). Much of the anguish Curtis went through in his life served as source material for the lyrics to many of the group`s songs, a number of which are used to provide a running commentary throughout the film. The movie also makes effective use of voiceover narration to try to figure out what is going on in that troubled head of his.

For his impressive directorial debut, photographer Anton Corbijn has wisely chosen to shoot his film in artful black-and-white, the better to capture the starkness of the scene and the state of his character's mind. Joy Division purists may object to the fact that Corbijn has had the actors themselves perform the songs rather than dubbing in the originals, but they do a fine job overall in interpreting the pieces.

Whether Curtis, in the long run, had a harder life than many who don't wind up committing suicide is not for us to determine. What the film does make clear, however, is that once he felt he was losing control over his life (symbolized by his constant and seemingly incurable epileptic seizures) and had pretty much made a mess of things as a husband, a father and a lover, his purpose for continuing in the struggle seemed to have disappeared. What a sad conclusion to come to, especially when one is only twenty-three years old. With subtlety and insight, "Control" movingly distills the essence of that sadness.

Noted rock photographer and video maker Anton Corbijn, who had met the members of Joy Division on a couple of occasions in the late 1970s, makes his debut as a director of a feature film with his take on the life and death of Ian Curtis. (The script is based on the 1995 memoir from Debbie Curtis, Ian's wife.)

As to the film, "Control" (122 min.) is as good a rock bio-pic that I can remember, keeping in mind that this is meant to be a film about Ian Curtis, not about Joy Division as such. Ian's struggles with epilepsy, alcohol and medication abuse, and most of all his relationship with people, including his wife Debbie, his Belgian girlfriend Annik, the band members, and last but not least, himself. As the movie goes on, and Ian's moods turn darker, it becomes more difficult to watch, because you now how it all will end. The movie is appropriately shot in black and white. The acting is outstanding, none more so than Sam Riley as Ian Curtis. Special kudos als for the four actors playing the Joy Division songs. This is not a playback or dubbed: it's the actors themselves playing the music, and they did a great job at it. I thought that Anton Corbijn did an outstanding job as well in directing this film.

The DVD comes with a number of nice extras. In particular "The Making of Control" (23 min.) and "A Conversation with Anton Corbijn" (12 min.) are quite insightful. The "Extended Live Performances From the Film" segment is mislabeled, in the sense that it brings a mere 3 songs (Transmission, Candidate, and Leaders of Men), so it is not quite the "extension" it could have been. There are a couple of videos as well, most interesting the 1979 performance from a BBC show, which is fascinating (and underscores how well Sam Riley has "caught" Ian Curtis). In all, "Control" is a fantastic movie. It puzzles me why the movie failed to get any traction at the box office here in the US (it was released only in a couple of cities; I never had a chance to see it in the theatre here in Cincinnati). This DVD is a nice way to catch up. If you have a nice home theatre-style sound system, it will absolutely enhance your enjoyment of this film. "Control" is highly recommended!

I am an admitted Joy Division fan just to put that out there first off. And the true story is an easy dramatic starting point for a film to be based on for sure. But the directing, acting, editing, and cinematography quality from this pic simply blew me away. I was not expecting such care for detail and razor sharp precision yet artistic vision from a first time director (the famous photographer Anton Corbijn) and mostly unheard of cast. Yes at the least Mr. Sam Riley should have earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ian Curtis, no doubt about it. Samantha Riley is indescribably excellent as his wife Deborah, these two roles could not have been done better. The best complement I can give Control is that it captures the environment and 'atmosphere' of Ian Curtis's world like a dream.

Sam Riley's performance definately made this movie. He is entirely convincing as Ian Curtis. The atmosphere, mood, and composition is also dead on, creating a wonderful and moving look at the early post-punk movement. I find myself agreeing with other reviewers who say that the movie could have been better...though I'm not sure what that would entail. There is, however, a lot of emotional subtley I think, and in the places where people claim that the movie "drags on", I think there is a virtue in being inexplicit about the character's struggle. I agree that this struggle could have been cut shorter, but I think the way in which the events leading up to Ian's suicide "drag on" somehow echoes the very appeal of Joy Division's music. It's dark and brooding, and it maintains the distance that is so central to Ian's tragedy.