Friday, November 2, 2007

Movie Review: Control

By Erin Rice

Control is a movie that does not mess around with silver linings and happy endings. As a biographical tale, and staying true to its main character, this film shows the aspects of life that people shy away from. Sometimes life does not get better and sometimes there is not closure in death. Tragedy does not always beget a lesson. Sometimes it is simply tragic, as was the death of Ian Curtis.

Control

Ian Curtis has aspirations beyond the trappings of small town life in 1970s England. Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop, he joins a band, and his musical ambition begins to thrive. Soon though, the everyday fears and emotions, that fuel his music, slowly begin to eat away at him. Married young, with a daughter, he is distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band, Joy Division. The strain manifests itself in his health. With epilepsy adding to his guilt and depression, desperation takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on his shoulders, Ian's tortured soul consumes him.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Control

A biopic of the life of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, Control opens in Manchester England in 1973. At this time Curtis, played by Sam Riley, a relatively new actor and lead singer of 10,000 Things, was still in high school. After promptly stealing his friend's girl, Curtis and Deborah Woodruff (Samantha Morton) get married in 1975 when they are both still teenagers. In 1976 he meets up with Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook at a Sex Pistols concert, and after finding a slew of drummers, the foursome initially form Warsaw, changing their name to the iconic Joy Division a couple years later.

As Joy Division grows in popularity, Curtis's mental and physical state begin to crumble. The film takes us through the trials of starting a band in post-punk England while balancing a mundane day job and a family. Over time, his two lives become less and less compatible. Adding to his complications, Curtis learns that he is epileptic and the medicines that he takes to lessen his condition end up having side effects that are often worse to live with than the seizures themselves. Dealing with the constant fear of death and newly becoming a father, his marriage deteriorates as he begins an affair with a Belgian fanzine writer, Annik Honore (Alexandra Maria Lara). In May 1980, after attempting and failing to reunite with his estranged wife, he screams at Deborah to leave their home. She returns the next day to find him hanged in the kitchen.

The feature film directorial debut of famed rock photographer and videographer, Anton Corbijn, the film deals vividly and honestly with Ian Curtis's struggles with depression and guilt. Control is based on Deborah Curtis's biographical account, Touching from a Distance - Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Despite being pulled from her point of view, the film adaptation plays out in a third person narrative mode. Debuting at the Cannes Film festival in early 2007, the movie and its director received three awards, among six others in subsequent film festivals the world over.

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis

What is remarkable about Control is not necessarily the story itself, rather, how the story is told. The entirety of the film is black and white, with much of the darkness of Manchester, the music clubs, and the Curtis's meager home kept as uninviting as Ian Curtis may potentially have viewed them himself. At the heart of the movie is Ian's sense of helplessness and lack of control over his life, as he's torn between his music and a future he believed was his destiny, and a sense of duty and responsibility to a family he rushed into when far too young.

If you have any knowledge of Joy Division going into the film, you surely know that Curtis will commit suicide. This knowledge alone, however, still cannot prepare you for how the movie ends. As you are taken into the depths of Curtis's depression, his inability to deal with his guilt and epilepsy, the film forces you to take on his emotions as if they are your own. Never before has the lead-up to a portrayed suicide left me feeling similarly hopeless, watching stone-faced as the main character finally takes his life. It was a powerful feeling that no other director has been able to impart through film.

While my perception of the life and death of Ian Curtis is one of tragedy and hopelessness, there are those who disagree such as Jon Savage, who wrote in Melody Maker, "Now no one will remember what his work with Joy Division was like when he was alive; it will be perceived as tragic rather than courageous." Tragic or no, Control is a beautiful movie that forces its audience to face emotions nobody wishes to ever deal with, but that so many must.

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• Arts > Movies / Film > Independent Films
• Arts > Popular Music

Comments

Stephanie Hindall Verified

Man oh man I love Joy Division. Can't wait to see this. Gonna listen to Substance now for a dose of JD classics. Thanks for writing this article.

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