CONTROL : Ian's Movie[:D]

[Frau_Blucher]

Well...would anybody here possibly think that I wouldn't say this was a great film?? It definitely was, but it also definitely wasn't "epic" or any other over-the-top adjective. It's just perfectly and brilliantly well-balanced. It's definitely not a Joy Division film either. It's an Ian Curtis film, and it neither glorifies nor crucifies him. Kinda just "there you go, this was him." I found it completely satisfying for those reasons, without a single complaint. It treated the material and the audience intelligently I guess. How often can you say that?

It also felt really personal, like I was peeking into a very private thing in the middle of a movie theater. I can't imagine what it was like for those involved to have watched it. The biggest emotional impact I felt was Curtis' palpable fear and loss of control, which of course was likely a key objective of Corbijn's. Before this, reading about his growing fame, epilepsy, infidelity and suicide were kinda spare historical facts. But this movie really conveys how increasingly fucked he must have felt.

There's plenty of Joy Division music in there of course. None sparked me up more than the first track that cut in at around 20 minutes, "No Love Lost". Holy fucking shit did I want to leap out of my chair and play some convulsive air guitar! What a powerful track, and what a killer first selection. The boys in the movie played all the songs really well too, although not all to the same level of success. I don't think Riley perfectly nailed the "Transmission" scene, although it was freaking great to watch regardless. Another weaker cover was the studio scene of "She's Lost Control" - it didn't have the bite of the original vocal, but maybe the almost sullen or conceding sleepwalk through it was the effect Corbijn was going for. They absolutely nailed "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - I really thought it was the original just being played as soundtrack until it panned over to the characters doing the song. But "Dead Souls" more than anything else made me wish like hell that I had seen the band back in the day.

There's also plenty in the movie for just pure movie fans. It's not just that it's shot in black and white. It's a particularly harsh and high-contrast black and white. The blacks are really black, the whites are often blown, and the midtones just seem really gritty and realistic. Not unnaturally so, but it certainly conveys its own characteristic mood. Almost all of the movie also seems to be shot at wide-open apertures, meaning the depth-of-field to almost all the shots are sliver thin. Corbijn makes more use of deliberate selective focus than in any other film I can remember, which makes sense since he's a photographer. A character's eye would often be in dead focus and literally nothing else, not even their nose or ear. A written page would have only one word in focus. Many shots would have the characters walk into the focus point from the background, which dramactically draws you to, um, focus on specific parts of the scene. Sometimes the action and dialogue would move off the focus point while the camera stayed on focus on some other interesting but not necessarily primary part of the scene. I think a film buff will absolutely love the cinematography in this movie. And jeez, who knows how many cool period mementos were in the background - a real childhood photo of Curtis, Buzzcocks/The Fall/Throbbing Gristle concert posters, Roxy/Iggy/Bowie soundtrack snippets, etc.

I'll have to watch it again. Obviously a big thumbs up from me. [:I]

[schwenko]

I would pretty much agree with what Blir has said; not surprising since we saw the film together and spoke about it. I'll just add 2 more snippets:

my favorite scene: Ian Curtis gets stage fright just before a show; manager Rob Gretton has to promise 20 quid to a ?fan/stage hand? to go on in his place. The crowd goes wild!

And while Samantha Morton was great as plain jane Debbie Curtis, the actress portraying home-wrecker Annik Honore was stunning.

Here's a link to real life pictures of the newlyweds, Ian and Debbie, and femme fatale Annik

http://marisolgarcia.blogspot.com/2005/ ... lores.html

[Frau_Blucher]

Funny thing happened on the way to listening to "No Love Lost" when I got home. It originally appeared on the EP An Ideal For Living. In iTunes' peculiar (suckass) alphabetizing scheme, the very next album is Iggy Pop's The Idiot. What a trip that after "Failures of the Modern Man", it cuts into "Sister Midnight" next! (for those who know the reference anyway)

PS. Am I the only supposed new wave fan that forgot that the Bowie-produced "China Girl" first appeared on this Iggy album??? [B)]

[Frau_Blucher]

Just saw this AWESOME mashup video clip:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fco_pH5F9xA

[redo]

in my forum you can download the BSO of control (ian curtis)
http://musica-remember.foroactivo.com/

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... olfilm.jpg



New Order - "Exit"
The Velvet Underground - "What Goes On"
The Killers - "Shadowplay" (Joy Division Cover)
Buzzcocks - "Boredom (Live)"
Joy Division - "Dead Souls"
Supersister - "She Was Naked"
Iggy Pop - "Sister Midnight"
Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Sex Pistols - "Problems (Live)"
New Order - "Hypnosis"
David Bowie - "Drive In Saturday"
John Cooper Clarke - "Evidently Chickentown"
Roxy Music - "2H.B."
Joy Division - "Transmission" (Performed by the cast)
Kraftwerk - "Autobahn"
Joy Division - "Atmosphere"
David Bowie - "Warszawa"
New Order - "Get Out"

[marie3]

Here's another review I read yesterday.
I really want to see this movie!


BY GENE SEYMOUR
October 12, 2007
The 1980 suicide of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the British post-punk quartet Joy Division, is a poignant side plot in 2001's raucous survey of the Manchester rock scene, "24 Hour Party People." Watching "Control," which places the melancholy trajectory of Curtis' life front and center, your correspondent confesses that, as much as he admires the craft and intensity of Anton Corbjin's biopic, he couldn't help but remember how much better a time he had at Michael Winterbottom's woozier but more exuberant movie.

Still, "Control" keeps you riveted in ways that "24 Hour Party People" doesn't; primarily because of the investment of craft and conviction by all concerned. As Deborah Curtis, the woman who marries Ian, bears his child and suffers his fame almost as much as he does, Samantha Morton again shows why she's one of her generation's best actors, conveying her open-hearted wonder that she could love such a complex, volatile person and the excruciating anxiety that comes when he drifts away from her - first emotionally, then literally.

But it is Sam Riley, making his movie debut as Curtis, who provides constant revelation in "Control." That Curtis was a moody individual with blazing charisma and lurking demons is obvious to anyone who already knows his story. Yet what's remarkable about Riley's performance is the way he makes Curtis' often-opaque personality so recognizably, palpably human. Riley resists the temptation toward pop hagiography and makes Curtis into someone both approachable and forbidding in any time frame, on any street corner.

And, in case you were wondering, the original Joy Division's music is rendered so perfectly here that you almost can't tell the difference between the movie's band and the real group's recording of "Atmosphere" that accompanies the closing credits.

[marie3]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>Just saw this AWESOME mashup video clip:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fco_pH5F9xA
[/quote]

Terrific link Blir, thanks. [:)]

[Frau_Blucher]

From the "NOO" site, Control release dates:

10/10
New York- Film Forum

10/19
Los Angeles- Landmark NuArt 500 seats

10/26
Canada (selected theatres)
Los Angeles- The Landmark (moves over from NuArt)
Chicago- Music Box
Philadelphia- Landmark Ritz
San Francisco- Landmark Lumiere
Berkeley- Landmark Shattuck
Boston- Landmark Kendall Square
Detroit- Landmark Main Art
Seattle- Landmark Metro
Denver- Landmark Starz Filmcenter
St. Louis- Landmark Tivoli
Honolulu - Oct 26, Hawaii International Film Festival

11/2
Dallas- Landmark Inwood
Washington DC- Landmark E-Street
Atlanta- Landmark Midtown
Minneapolis- Landmark Lagoon
San Diego- Landmark Ken
Houston - Landmark

11/9
Pittsburgh - Squirrel Hill

[cookie]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>From the "NOO" site, Control release dates:

10/10
New York- Film Forum

10/19
Los Angeles- Landmark NuArt 500 seats

10/26
Canada (selected theatres)
Los Angeles- The Landmark (moves over from NuArt)
Chicago- Music Box
Philadelphia- Landmark Ritz
San Francisco- Landmark Lumiere
Berkeley- Landmark Shattuck
Boston- Landmark Kendall Square
Detroit- Landmark Main Art
Seattle- Landmark Metro
Denver- Landmark Starz Filmcenter
St. Louis- Landmark Tivoli
Honolulu - Oct 26, Hawaii International Film Festival

11/2
Dallas- Landmark Inwood
Washington DC- Landmark E-Street
Atlanta- Landmark Midtown
Minneapolis- Landmark Lagoon
San Diego- Landmark Ken
Houston - Landmark

11/9
Pittsburgh - Squirrel Hill
[/quote]

Thanks for the update Blir. Maybe Philly should check out Pittsburgh [:D]

[DJ Phoenix]

I wish it were playing in Vegas somewhere? get a little help on if/where?

http://djphenix.proboards55.com/

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by DJ Phoenix[/i]
<br>I wish it were playing in Vegas somewhere? get a little help on if/where?
[/quote]
Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon - February 18, 2008.

[hubcity]

Heading deep into serial monomania on this...

- Watched 24 Hour Party People...
- Got the DVD and listened to Tony Wilson's commentary...
- Read Wilson's 24 Hour Party People book (complete with hilarious pranking by Joy Div et. al. and heartbreaking interaction between Wilson and Annik)
- Now I'm gonna see this...(prolly should read Deborah Curtis' book first...)

If I keep this up, someday I'll [i]know everything[/i].

(Have to say, from the clips I've seen, Control's Wilson seems quite a bit closer to the real thing...)

-Sean
Altrok Radio
Streaming on your computer anytime, at <a href="">http://www.altrokradio.com</a>
Fridays at 10PM on your FM radio, at <a href="http://90.5thenight.org">90.5 The Night</a>

[grumpygirl]

I cannot believe this is not showing in south Florida. Guess I will be waiting for the DVD [:(]

[mhochuli]

[quote][i]Originally posted by grumpygirl[/i]
<br>I cannot believe this is not showing in south Florida. Guess I will be waiting for the DVD [:(]
[/quote]

Hey Grumpy - I was wondering where you'd been! I'm very surprised it's not in S. Fla. as well. I'll have to wait for the DVD, too, but not surprised because I'm in the "midwest" but not Chicago or St. Louis - and they figure most of us are hayseeds as my husband says - bummer[:(]

[grumpygirl]

[quote][i]Originally posted by mhochuli[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by grumpygirl[/i]
<br>I cannot believe this is not showing in south Florida. Guess I will be waiting for the DVD [:(]
[/quote]

Hey Grumpy - I was wondering where you'd been! I'm very surprised it's not in S. Fla. as well. I'll have to wait for the DVD, too, but not surprised because I'm in the "midwest" but not Chicago or St. Louis - and they figure most of us are hayseeds as my husband says - bummer[:(]
[/quote]
Hey mhochuli, i have been here just not much to say lately! You would figure with a metropolitan population of 6 million people that at least one theater would be showing this. Mind blowing.......