Anton Corbijn moved from The Netherlands to England because he loved the music of Joy Division, and not long after moving, he took photographs of the band that later became very well known.  He went on to become one of the best known photographers in the rock world.  His images of U2 are familiar to millions.  He has also made many music videos for bands such as Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Metallica, and The Killers.  Nearly 30 years later, he has made a movie based on Joy Division's singer and main songwriter, Ian Curtis.  Control is his first feature-length movie. 

The screenplay is based on Debbie Curtis's 1995 biography of Ian Curtis, Touching from a Distance, and so it focuses on their marriage.  However, the screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh also did research of his own, talking to Debbie Curtis and Ian's Belgian lover Annik Honore.  So the film does not show much about the formation of the band or how they make their music.  Surprisingly, according to Corbijn, the remaining band-members liked the film and so they can't have felt that it significantly distorted the history of the band. 

Ian Curtis killed himself at the age of 23.  His band's second album Closer had just been released, and they were due to travel to the USA to play in New York the next day.  His marriage was crumbling, and he was unable to control his epilepsy.  His medication for the epilepsy had severe side effects, especially since Ian continued to drink.  He suffered mood swings and had even taken a drug overdose previously, for which he had been hospitalized, so he was clearly at risk for another suicide attempt.  It's shocking that he didn't get better psychiatric care.

 The film has a clunky feel to it.  Most of the actors are relatively inexperienced, and their acting is sometimes wooden.  The main actors, playing Ian Curtis, Debbie Curtis, and Annik Honore are all good, and the depictions of the eccentric characters of Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson are excellent.  But the film does not give any great psychological depth to its study of Ian or his relationships with Debbie or Annik, and we learn nothing about the rest of his family.  The strength of the movie is mainly as a period piece, showing Manchester and Macclesfield in the late 1970s.  Some of the shooting is actually done in the street in which Curtis lived.  It helps that much of the music was filmed live, performed by the actors themselves, making the movie more realistic.  On the other hand, the movie is in black and white, and the cinematography and lighting is quite stylized, making it beautiful but more like a music video than a documentary. 

Joy Division fans will probably enjoy Control, and the film could serve as an introduction to the band for those who are curious about it. 

Links:

• Anton Corbijn website
• Q&A with Anton Corbijn on Youtube.com

© 2008 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York.

Keywords: Joy Division, Ian Curtis, suicide, dvd, review