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Control (Ian Curtis film)

London_Calling

London_Calling

Pleasant and unpatronising
The Guardian's film reviewer - the normally temperate and reliable Peter Bradshaw - has this morning gone berserk for this this film:

"It is the best film of the year:"

"It all looked so vividly real to my fortysomething eye that, frankly, I thought I'd died and gone to Q-magazine-reading 50-quid bloke heaven. And when John Cooper Clarke came on playing himself, a support act to Joy Division when they were called Warsaw, I pretty well levitated out of my seat with sheer happiness, and had to be tied back down with guy-ropes.

"What a fantastic film this is"

"Control is a film about England, about music, about loneliness and love; there is melancholy in it, but also a roar of energy. I thought it might depress me. Instead I left the cinema walking on air."


You don't read that very often. Anyone caught it yet?
 
can't wait to see this - hopefully gonny catch it over the weekend :)
 
i've heard mixed reports, like it's too dark and doesn't get the sense of a band of cheeky young manc lads, like the tone is all wrong. After '24hr party people' & the Factory rec. doc I'm not sure i sit through another load of this. Will check the review though , perhaps i can be convinced.
 
London_Calling said:
"Control is a film about England, about music, about loneliness and love; there is melancholy in it, but also a roar of energy.
Click to expand...
DJWrongspeed said:
i've heard mixed reports, like it's too dark and doesn't get the sense of a band of cheeky young manc lads, like the tone is all wrong.
Click to expand...
You don't think it maybe has somewhat greater ambitions ?

I'm also not sure Ian Curtis was ever a "cheeky young manc lad" - it's not a biopic of Joy Division / New Order / et al.
 
*cough*
Saw it last night and haven't got over it yet.

Curtis was never a cheeky Manc lad - he wasn't even from Manchester. I remember very clearly seeing JD at the Factory night at the Russell Club, and it was full of a kind of furious, violent energy, with IC strangely detached from it all. The tone of the film is spot on, imo. Hilarious in some parts, devastating in others.
 
A mate of mine is going to see it next week

She's a massive Joy Division fan - I've told her it's been passed with a quality certificate by another fan :)
 
He was alive when they started filming, a couple of years ago, and is credited as co-producer. I saw him a few times round Macclesfield on location.
 
Watched it this afternoon. Left the cinema feeling very moved. Wasn't sure about it at first, I wasn't convinced by the young Curtis in his bedroom. Howeve, as it went on, it got better and better. The cinemaphotography was great, the composition of every shot was perfect. The live scenes literally sent shivers up my spine. I was too young to have ever had a chance of seeing Joy Division play, so this was as close as I'm going to come. They were such an important band for me, growing up as a depressed teenager. By the end, I was almost in pieces, Sam Morton's performance as the marriage disintegrated was fab and by the end, I had tears rolling down my face. I do wonder though, if it would have moved me so much if I hadn't had such a personal attachment to the music.
 
Blagsta said:
I do wonder though, if it would have moved me so much if I hadn't had such a personal attachment to the music.
Click to expand...

Innit, even 24 hour party people made me cry :(
 
Blagsta said:
Wasn't sure about it at first, I wasn't convinced by the young Curtis in his bedroom.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I went into it and all I knew about Anton Corjbin was he took wanky photos that made U2 look good. So the early Bowie worshipping b&w fag smoking stuff stoked my worst fears, and I was more than ready to get up and go if it was a TV movie shot by an ad-obsessed wanker. But it's very good! The acting is out of this world, by the two leads and the uncanny New Order lookalikes. Plus two hilarious cameos from the manager and the Telly wanker.
 
Blagsta said:
Watched it this afternoon. Left the cinema feeling very moved. Wasn't sure about it at first, I wasn't convinced by the young Curtis in his bedroom. Howeve, as it went on, it got better and better. The cinemaphotography was great, the composition of every shot was perfect. The live scenes literally sent shivers up my spine. I was too young to have ever had a chance of seeing Joy Division play, so this was as close as I'm going to come. They were such an important band for me, growing up as a depressed teenager. By the end, I was almost in pieces, Sam Morton's performance as the marriage disintegrated was fab and by the end, I had tears rolling down my face. I do wonder though, if it would have moved me so much if I hadn't had such a personal attachment to the music.
Click to expand...
:cool: i hope to get along and see this soon. just opened at the rio apparently. sounds great :)
 
hoping to see it at the cornerhouse as soon as i can. someone told me i look like ian curtis once :cool:
 
Saw this yesterday and gets my vote. Taken from Curtis' perspective it charts his descent, that seems to be the central premise. Rob Gretton played by Toby Kebbell is fantastic all the way and guess what Bernie looks like a young Malcolm Mcdowell :p

It's really the gig scenes that steal it. As Blagsta says if you missed them live this gives you a little window on what they might have felt like. Away from the albums and EPs they still sound very original in the live context and really powerful. I'm more a fan of the music rather than Curtis. Poor old Debbie Curtis, first he left her for another women and then he topped himself, she must've hated him.
 
Saw it. Loved it, and felt shaky and queasy after it. Best British film of the... year? More?

Note to those looking for a fanboy experience: this is Deborah Curtis' film.
 
Got a phonecall on Saturday from a mate in London who's a massive Joy Div fan and she was really disappointed by it. She'd read Debbie Curtis's book twice and felt the film didn't stack up in comparison. Didn't much rate the actors playing band members apart from the one who was Hooky. Perhaps it's just her taste in stuff, she reckoned it was a bit too 'film student'.

Last 5 minutes had her in tears though.
 
SpookyFrank said:
Blagsta said:
I do wonder though, if it would have moved me so much if I hadn't had such a personal attachment to the music.
Click to expand...

Innit, even 24 hour party people made me cry :(
Click to expand...

Whereas I have little to no interest in Joy Division, New Order, Tony Wilson etc. and 24 Hour Party People bored the shit out of me. On that basis I probably won't bother with Control, although the black and white photography looks pretty.
 
I'm really bemused by the associations people are making 'I didn't like 24HPP so . . . ', 'I didn't like Joy Division that much so . . .'

Fwiw, if I thought it was a film about a trendy band in the late 70s I really wouldn't be troubling to see it on Wed afternoon. Jesus, I hope I'm not too wrong . . .
 
laptop said:
Saw it. Loved it, and felt shaky and queasy after it. Best British film of the... year? More?
Click to expand...


As above. The live scenes transported me back in time completely. Thought the lass who played Deborah Curtis was superb.

Go see it.
 
gnoriac said:
Got a phonecall on Saturday from a mate in London who's a massive Joy Div fan and she was really disappointed by it. She'd read Debbie Curtis's book twice and felt the film didn't stack up in comparison. Didn't much rate the actors playing band members apart from the one who was Hooky. Perhaps it's just her taste in stuff, she reckoned it was a bit too 'film student'.
Click to expand...
That's quite an indictment - Hooky barely speaks! :D
 
London_Calling said:
Fwiw, if I thought it was a film about a trendy band in the late 70s I really wouldn't be troubling to see it on Wed afternoon. Jesus, I hope I'm not too wrong . . .
Click to expand...

I don't think you are.

It's not a fanboy film, ffs. It's about... life, fear, and Macclesfield :D


So of course fans will be disappointed - especially if they've read the book twice and don't know that you can't film more than 90 pages of any book.
 
Saw it Friday, had been waited for it to come out for bloody months and it lived up to expectations. Beautifully shot, the "live" scenes were absolutely electrifying and there were some good laughs along the way to the inevitable tragedy. For me there is no way to make sense of Ian's suicide (or indeed any suicide) but I think the film managed to portray his life (and death) in a sensitive and thought provoking way.
 
It's worth it for the live scenes alone if, like me, you were too young to see Joy Division.

It's beautiful as well, almost every frame could be a still.

But I felt the dialogue was lacking a bit in a few parts.
 
Is Ian Curtis the guy that did Four Weddings and a Funeral?

I'll probably give this one a miss - I'm not a fan of romcoms.
 
subversplat said:
Is Ian Curtis the guy that did Four Weddings and a Funeral?

I'll probably give this one a miss - I'm not a fan of romcoms.
Click to expand...

Nah, you're thinking of Tony Curtis.

Ian Curtis was the bloke who played Spartacus.

Hope that clears it up!;)
 
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