Control is a biography movie released in 2007 – directed by Anton Corbijn and co-producted by Deborah Curtis (Ian Curtis widow) and script written by Matt Greenhalgh.
Based on the book “Touching from a Distance” – written by Deborah Curtis, this book and movie tells the emotional, depressing, distressing and chaotic story of Ian Curtis (1956 to 1980) life and death. Ian was a vocal from one of the main post punk bands (Warsaw and Joy Division – 1977 to 1980) and who started the movement in the 1980s based on British punk rock 70’s.
The movie is shot in black and white “to reflect the atmosphere of Joy Division and the mood of the era” and the title refers to the song ‘She Lost Control’ and it is believed that the song was written because of a client of Ian Curtis while he was working in an employment agency in Manchester, she was epileptic and later died during a seizure.
About the Behind-the-Scenes:
Corbijn has been a devoted Joy Division fan since the band’s early days in the 1970s. After moving to England, he met the band and took several photos for NME, which boosted his career as a photographer. Some of his photos appear in the movie. He also directed the video clip for Atmosphere, released in 1988. He said that the movie blends in with his own life in some way. “I went to England to get closer to that music at the time, and I was really into Joy Division. I worked with them, took photos of them that became synonymous with their music, and bonded with them forever. Then eight years after [Ian Curtis’] death, I made the video for Atmosphere, so I’ve always been connected to them.”
Control marks Corbijn’s debut as a film director, and he paid half of the €4.5 million budget out of his own pocket.
Todd Eckert and Orian Williams are the producers. Deborah Curtis, widow of Ian Curtis, is co-producer, along with Tony Wilson, who died months before the film’s release. It was Wilson who gave Joy Division their TV debut on the local variety show Granada Reports, and also founded Factory Records, which released most of Joy Division’s work.
After the script for the movie was finished in May 2005, filming began in Nottingham, Manchester and Macclesfield in England, as well as some other European locations. The first shoot began on July 3, 2006 and lasted seven weeks. Shooting on Barton Street (where Ian Curtis lived and died) took place on July 11 and 12, 2006. EM Media, a regional film agency, invested £250,000 from the European regional development fund in the production of Control, and helped during the filming work. Samantha Morton (Deborah Curtis) and Toby Kebbell (Rob Gretton) studied at the Junior TV Workshop in Nottingham.
Ian and Deborah Curtis’ daughter Natalie was in the audience as an extra in the shot of the Derby Hall performance.
Cast:
- Sam Riley as Ian Curtis (This actor was able to portray Ian’s personality very well, such as on stage, backstage, the epileptic seizures);
- Samantha Morton as Deborah Curtis;
- Alexandra Maria Lara as Annik Honoré ;
- James Anthony Pearson as Bernard Sumner (Joy Division member – guitar, keyboard player and vocal/composer);
- Joe Anderson as Peter Hook (Joy Division member – bass player, vocal and multi-instrumentalist);
- Harry Treadaway as Stephen Morris (Joy Divion member- drum player);
- Toby Kebbell as Rob Gretton (the band’s manager);
- Craig Parkinson as Tony Wilson (tv presenter and founder of the Factury Records);
- Andrew Sheridan as Terry Mason;
- Robert Shelly as Twinny;
- Matthew McNulty as Nick Jackson;
- Ben Naylor as Martin Hannett;
- John Cooper Clarke – He is a British poet who came to prominence at the end of the 1970s with the punk movement, his lyrics and influence were very important for this generation and later.
Release & Box Office:
The Weinstein Company bought the rights to release the film in North America after its successful presentation at Cannes. DVD copies were released in the UK on February 11, 2008.
The film grossed around US$8,159,508, 71% of which came from countries outside the UK. It ranks 32nd at the box office (not adjusted for inflation), below 24 Hour Party People and above What We Do Is Secret among films in the same genre of music biography.
Film reviewers:
Peter Bradshaw, chief film critic of The Guardian, considers Control to be “the best film of the year: a gentle, darkly funny, superb biopic of Curtis“. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars, in a rating where the maximum grade is 4 stars, and wrote that “Control’s extraordinary achievement is that at the same time that it functions as a biopic, it is the story of a life.”
Rotten Tomatoes website, the movie received an 87% rating, with 93 out of 107 critics giving the movie a positive rating. Metacritic gave the film an average rating of 78 out of 100, based on 27 reviews, considering that the film had “generally favorable reviews”.
However, some critics disagree with the majority and have given the movie negative reviews. Like Ray Bennett from Reuters, who gave the movie a “disappointing” rating.
Reaction from Joy Division Members:
Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, two of the founding members of Joy Division, generally praised the film. However, Morris disputed its accuracy, saying, “None of it is really true,” but acknowledged the need to augment the facts, because “the truth is very boring.” Hook criticized the reaction of the audience at the preview, for clapping at the end of the performance. “A dignified silence would have been better.”
After the screening of the film in Cannes, Hook commented that “I knew it was a great movie and that it would be very well received, because even though it was two hours long, only two people went to the toilet the whole time. In fact, one of them was Bernard and the other was a 70-year-old woman”.
Film & Facts:
- The film shows Ian Curtis joining Joy Division when Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris were already in the band. In fact, the band had a succession of drummers (including Terry Mason, before he became the band’s manager) before Stephen Morris, who was inducted largely because he had been a schoolmate of Ian Curtis;
- Contrary to rumor, Tony Wilson did not sign the contract in his own blood. Joy Division didn’t even sign a contract with Factory Records;
- When he married Deborah Curtis, Ian Curtis had a short haircut. In the movie, in the scene where they are getting married, he has long hair;
- Stephen Morris’ surname has only one S, not two, as Tony Wilson said.
- The original home of Ian and Deborah Curtis, number 77 Barton Street in Macclesfield, was used in the film. However, the couple didn’t spend all their married life there; they lived with Ian’s grandparents in Hulme, Manchester, occupied a house in Chadderton Oldham before buying the two-bedroom house in Barton Street;
- The performance at Granada Reports on September 20, 1978, as shown in the film, shows the band playing Transmission instead of Shadowplay, the song they actually played. The band played Transmission on BBC2’s Something Else on September 15, 1979;
- Ian and Deborah’s dog Candy doesn’t appear in the movie, although Ian carries a photo of her in his briefcase;
- Towards the end of the movie, Ian returns to his parents’ house in Macclesfield to live with them. According to the book, at this time his parents were living in Moston, Manchester.
Soundtrack:
The Killers covered Joy Division’s “Shadowplay” exclusively for the movie’s soundtrack, which also features original songs by David Bowie and Buzzcocks. However, the live Joy Division performances shown throughout the movie were done by the actors themselves. New Order also provided some compositions for the film’s incidental soundtrack.
| N.º | Título | Artista | Duração | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | “Exit” | New Order | 1:14 | |
| 2. | “What Goes On” | The Velvet Underground | 5:07 | |
| 3. | “Shadowplay” | The Killers | 4:11 | |
| 4. | “Boredom” (ao vivo) | Buzzcocks | 3:07 | |
| 5. | “Dead Souls” | Joy Division | 4:51 | |
| 6. | “She Was Naked” | Supersister | 3:53 | |
| 7. | “Sister Midnight” | Iggy Pop | 4:18 | |
| 8. | “Love Will Tear Us Apart” | Joy Division | 3:26 | |
| 9. | “Hypnosis” | New Order | 1:35 | |
| 10. | “Drive in Saturday” | David Bowie | 4:31 | |
| 11. | “Evidently Chickentown” (ao vivo) | John Cooper Clarke | 0:31 | |
| 12. | “2HB” | Roxy Music | 4:29 | |
| 13. | “Transmission” | Control cast | 3:02 | |
| 14. | “Autobahn” | Kraftwerk | 11:23 | |
| 15. | “Atmosphere” | Joy Division | 4:33 | |
| 16. | “Warszawa” | David Bowie | 6:21 | |
| 17. | “Get Out” | New Order | 2:42 |
- Watch this movie on: Prime Video or on Russia Website films: https://ok.ru/video/2575974009429 .
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