Control (Anton Corbijn, 2007)

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ogygia avenue · #26 Post by **ogygia avenue** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 3:19 am

Just saw this today.

I really loved the editing and the cinematography -- there were so many shots that seemed to go on for minutes at a time without moving the camera, and the shot composition was very engaging. (There was a great shot of Ian standing outside the hospital after his daughter is born, smoking a cigarette, that was just stunning and said a lot about what was going on without saying it.) The performances were good, particularly Samantha Morton's. On a geeky note, I was amazed that this wasn't shot on Ilford stock (which I know was discontinued, but I figured Corbijn would have stockpiled it).

As someone who's not a huge fan of Joy Division, this was kind of a hard sell. Gorgeous and melancholy, yes, but it assumed that you were a Joy Division fan before you went in. (I suppose if someone made a film about Young Marble Giants, the JD fans might feel the same way.)

Does anyone else wish Coogan reprised his role as Tony Wilson?

kaujot · #27 Post by **kaujot** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 3:56 am

I do.

Cold Bishop · #28 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 4:48 am

ogygia avenue wrote:(I suppose if someone made a film about Young Marble Giants, the JD fans might feel the same way.)

I'd imagine most people who would go to a Young Marble Giants bio-film would be Joy Division fans, or at least largely familiar with their work.

ogygia avenue · #29 Post by **ogygia avenue** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:11 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:I'd imagine most people who would go to a Young Marble Giants bio-film would be Joy Division fans, or at least largely familiar with their work.

This is true. I guess I care more about YMG than I do about Ian Curtis and would be more interested in seeing a film about them. Complaining about this seems a little unfair, though. ::shrugs::

Cold Bishop · #30 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:03 am

I saw it. Liked it, but don't think its a masterpiece (which of course no one is expecting in the first place). The film looks gorgeous, and Corbijn deserves all the praise he's been getting for the look of the film. I would love to see what he could do with something else less obvious. I feel the film could have benefited from being even sparser and colder than it already was, although I wouldn't lose Toby Kebbell or any of them humor early on ("It's in my fuck-off pocket", "Thing could be worse... You could be the lead singer for The Fall"). All in all, its worth a look, especially on the big screen for Corbijn's photography.

Steven H · #31 Post by **Steven H** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 2:56 am

Radiohead covered "Ceremony" the other day (here's an MP3), I wonder if it had something to do with this film coming out.

miless · #32 Post by **miless** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 3:33 am

Steven H wrote:Radiohead covered "Ceremony" the other day (here's an MP3), I wonder if it had something to do with this film coming out.

AWESOME!
thanks for this one.
I've always wished that Joy Division had recorded a proper (Martin Hannett produced) single... but I guess this song is responsible for the formation of New Order (as they initially set out to record and release it as a memorial for Ian... but then decided they had a good thing going)

Dylan · #33 Post by **Dylan** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:22 am

Going in, all I knew about this film was that it was shot in 2.35:1 black and white and that it was about the band Joy Division... I was intrigued by the project, even though my knowledge of Joy Division extended no further than barely recalling seeing their name dropped online a few times. It's certainly a bleak film, beautifully shot and I enjoyed the music. Ian Curtis is a great character, and I was particularly affected by the stark dramatization of his private suffering in the final half hour. The first third or so was kind of unegaging, but right when we start to see the band perform live I felt more involved. There's definitely a lack of immediacy in how much of his story (and especially the band's story) is presented, even if Ian Curtis seemed to be kind of an enigma (to most people) in real life.

Sam Riley and Samantha Morton are both good, and while her role is brief (and apparently uninsightful, according to Joy Division enthusiasts), Alexandra Maria Lara is a magnetic screen presence. I can't wait to watch her in Youth Without Youth.

tavernier · #34 Post by **tavernier** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:36 am

Dylan wrote:Alexandra Maria Lara is a magnetic screen presence. I can't wait to watch her in Youth Without Youth.

She's the only watchable thing in that movie.

Dylan · #35 Post by **Dylan** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:44 am

tavernier wrote:
Dylan wrote:Alexandra Maria Lara is a magnetic screen presence. I can't wait to watch her in Youth Without Youth.
She's the only watchable thing in that movie.

Judging from the cinematography in the trailer for Youth Without Youth (probably the best shots I've ever seen from Coppola, and I say that as a Storaro addict) and the bit of the score I've heard, I doubt that, even if I end up not caring for the film...but let's take this over to the Youth Without Youth thread.

tavernier · #36 Post by **tavernier** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:48 am

Agreed...Control is much better than YWY.

zombeaner · #37 Post by **zombeaner** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:30 am

I truly enjoyed the performance bits. I loved this film, I think it captured what I expected from Ian Curtis and his outlook. The live performances were awesome though and really conveyed the feeling of an event like that.

John Cope · #38 Post by **John Cope** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:40 am

What I thought was most remarkable about this was the fact that it overwhelms us with so much that we've seen before and then that itself turns out to be the point. For the first half hour or so I was unmoved because we get such a seemingly superficial catalogue of typical rock bio cliches, including the unbelievably blunt image of Debbie's pregnant belly intruding into the frame and confronting Ian as he consorts with a groupie. At that point I thought this was going south fast; that despite the staggeringly beautiful compositions which others have already noted. Even Ian's epilepsy has a familiar kind of function within this type of narrative. Still, somewhere around the 45 minute mark I began to sense something else going on but it was something I couldn't pin down for awhile.

It becomes very gradually apparent that the film actually relies far more on Riley and Morton's nuanced turns than it initially seems to. Riley in particular is absolutely superb in a profoundly well calibrated performance which is shorn of the typical showboating theatrics that these type of pictures often revel in. I guess it's ultimately closer to Last Days, perhaps appropriately, in that, for once, the emphasis is not on the stock cliches as plot points but rather how incapable the protagonist is of handling them and how their accumulated pressure can be lethal. That's the real purpose here, I think. It's a rare and welcome gift to see a portrait of a genuinely fragile human being.

All the typical rock star troubles which the usual rock star hero, thrust into the limelight against his will (and this is even true of something as remote and carefully drawn as Haynes' Velvet Goldmine), is vocally unable to cope with are here given authentic weight, a substantive oppressive force. The indication of this is, of course, the moment between Ian and Debbie in which she demands to know about Annik and he simply withdraws. No lies or efforts at concealment, no fussy projection of the fear of being caught out realized, and no aggressive hitting back; nothing but a kind of slow fall, the harbinger of a full on psychic collapse in the making. We also see this clearly in the scene in which he tells Debbie that he can't get Annik to go away. This isn't posturing or some loudmouth protestation; we are to see that he truly can't handle it and to realize that, on occasion, the "burdens" of the sudden celebrity actually do take a toll greater than some can bear. The title is so very apt. So very apt.

The final shot is also an absolute stunner. Corbijn is to be congratulated for finding the exact right framing for the exact right image. His style is not arbitrary or simply a sheen. It's carefully considered throughout and here, in this moment, most of all.

colinr0380 · #39 Post by **colinr0380** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:10 am

Samantha Morton's previous work with Anton Corbijn.

oldsheperd · #40 Post by **oldsheperd** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:38 pm

Completely missed this one. I saw the Killers video for shadowplay which is one of my fav JD songs. I wonder how much the writer got from reading Curtis' wife's book "Touching From A Distance". In her book she rightly so comes across as the ultimate victim due to his infidelity and severe depression.

MichaelB · #41 Post by **MichaelB** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:44 pm

oldsheperd wrote:I wonder how much the writer got from reading Curtis' wife's book "Touching From A Distance".

Practically everything, as that's the primary source. It's very much the Debbie Curtis version of events - others might conceivably have a different viewpoint.

(Though it helps enormously that Corbijn knew the band personally)

pro-bassoonist · #42 Post by **pro-bassoonist** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:19 pm

Set to be released on February 11 in the United Kingdom. Part of the Directors' Fortnight Series at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

Official UK site

Variety:

By RUSSELL EDWARDS

Somber, sad and compelling, Ian Curtis biopic "Control," about the lead singer of the '80s post-punk Blighty band Joy Division, is a riveting, visually arresting portrait of a tormented soul. Sam Riley gives a winning perf in the central role and is surrounded by a strong ensemble of thesps. First feature helming bow by photographer Anton Corbijn manages to present working-class Northern England in a wide range of appealing grays that make the description "black-and-white film" inadequate. Widely anticipated by the band's legion of fans, pic is assured a warm welcome and a successful worldwide tour.

Pic spans from 1973, when Curtis was a teenager, to his suicide in 1980, just prior to what was expected to be a successful U.S. tour. Auds familiar with Michael Winterbottom's "24 Hour Party People" will recognize overlapping events covered in that biopic of Manchester music entrepreneur Tony Wilson (here played by Craig Parkinson, but thesped by Steve Coogan in the earlier pic).

Despite some amusing moments, the tone of this pic is considerably less lighthearted. It makes a fitting eulogy not just for Curtis, but for his ill-fated marriage to Deborah Curtis, whose memoir is the chief source for this heartfelt, anguished film.

At pic's beginning, Hamlet-like teenager Ian Curtis, curled up in his bedroom, is already contemplating reasons for existence. Experimenting with pharmaceutical drugs and possessed by a desire to write poetry and song lyrics, Curtis lives in a David Bowie-lined cocoon, isolated from his family and the world. Something about a friend's g.f. Debbie (Samantha Morton), however, reveals the butterfly within, and Ian quickly makes a play for her, with a devotion that rapidly leads to wedding bells.

Between love at first sight and marriage, Curtis attends (with Debbie glued to his side) a historic, sparsely attended Sex Pistols gig and inveigles himself into the position of lead vocalist of a singerless band that later will be called Joy Division.

Pic follows the well-known arc of rising pop stars outgrowing the conventional life of those around them, but Corbijn never loses sight of, or becomes indifferent to, Debbie's pain in being deceived or left behind.

The tug of war between husband and wife is depicted fairly, but (unsurprisingly given the source material), the distress of the often monosyllabic, and frequently epileptic Ian is occasionally eclipsed by Morton's astonishing, sympathetic performance as his suffering wife.

Nevertheless, Riley is likewise stunning. Except for the film's opening and final reels, which grant him a voiceover, Riley's portrayal is like a series of snapshots of different people: gentle, selfish, uncaring, ambitious. Riley is able to fashion these disparate personalities into a psychologically fractured but dramatically cohesive whole.

Supporting cast is strong, with Tony Kebbell standing out as Joy Division manager Rob Gretton, who provides comic relief and ruthless business acumen at the same time. In an indication of the script's fairness, Alexandra Maria Lara is allowed a sympathetic turn as Curtis' Belgian lover Annik.

Corbijn's helming presents a visual rhapsody of grays and largely abstains from the artiness that plagues most snappers-cum-directors. Use of Joy Division songs (some re-performed by thesps playing the band) to illustrate the drama is well-informed and well-executed. Sound quality is excellent throughout, from musical concerts to Debbie's shrill screams.

Camera (B&W), Martin Ruhe; editor, Andrew Hulme; music, New Order; production designer, Chris Richmond; sound (Dolby Digital) Peter Baldock. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Directors' Fortnight -- opener), May 17, 2007. Running time: 121 MIN.

Ciao,
Pro-B

manicsounds · #43 Post by **manicsounds** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:36 am

this is looking good, and an unannounced DTS sounds nice.
I hope the 4% speedup wont be bad....

zombeaner · #44 Post by **zombeaner** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:18 am

Has anyone been able to deduce the specs for the US disc? I'm really tempted to buy the UK edition, but is the US is the same, I can wait.

tasog37 · #45 Post by **tasog37** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:21 am

As excited as I am about the dvd, I would do just about anything to get this film on blu-ray.

One of my favorite films now, easily; I'm biased, as Joy Division has been one of my favorite groups for some time, but nevertheless I absolutely loved it. I can only imagine how incredible the visuals could look on the blu-ray.

zombeaner · #46 Post by **zombeaner** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:54 am

Okay. I know I asked this two posts but, but it has been a while I it couldn't hurt to ask again. Does anyone have a heads up on the US DVD release? Some places have it listed at 3/25 including amazon, but other places have it listed to release in June. There are no specs anywhere, there is no cover art anywhere. I'm seriously doubting that whenever the US version comes out that it will have the DTS track, which for this film will be a must. Grr, I'm getting impatient.

Fletch F. Fletch · Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:02 pm

Jon Savage on researching the feature-length doc on Joy Division.

zombeaner · #48 Post by **zombeaner** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:36 am

BTW Amazon has moved the release date to June, which means I'll be ordering the UK disc this week.

Fletch F. Fletch · Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:12 pm

Specs:

Genius Products and The Weinsten Company has announced Control which stars Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Sam Riley. This new biopic will be available to own from the 3rd June, and should retail at around $28.95. The film itself will be presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital track. Extras will include an audio commentary with the director, a making of featurette, music videos and more.

MichaelB · #50 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:30 pm

The film itself will be presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital track. Extras will include an audio commentary with the director, a making of featurette, music videos and more.

Sounds broadly similar to the British R2 release, though that has a DTS track.

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