Into the Cold

Last night, after the screening of the film Control, director Anton Corbijn told us during a Q&A that his background was in photography. The band Joy Division were his first teenage obsession, and it was because of them that he left his small town in Holland and moved to England, where he went on to photograph the band for the NME and, years later, become the chosen one to film Ian Curtis' life story. Control is his first film.

The lack of camera movement and the beautiful black & white cinematography are obvious indications of Corbijn's background in photography. He teases out of Ian Curtis' bleak and ordinary life some beautiful images, including the band's first live shows. He also lucked out in finding an actor, Sam Riley, who not only resembles Ian Curtis but also gives a very naturalistic performance. Samantha Morton, an old friend of Anton Corbijn, also gives a great performance - in fact, I have still to see a movie where she isn't damn good.

But despite the film being visually beautiful, carrying amazing performances and a great soundtrack, it left me cold. Ian Curtis, in the end, was an unlikable character. The script successfully shows how distant and shut off Ian was, especially with those who loved him, but this creates a lack of empathy in the audience (or at least it did in me). Thankfully, the film is more about the personal lives of these characters rather than another typical rock genre film.

Interesting fact about the film:
The director included the song of a Dutch band in the soundtrack, Supersister's "She Was Naked", because they were from the early 70s and he wanted something of his own life inserted in the film. Later, he found out that John Peel was a great champion of the song at the time. He had a box underneath his desk which contained his favourite singles (42 of them) that he could quickly grab and save in case of a fire, and "She Was Naked" was in there. Also, one of the member's of Joy Division was the only person in Macclesfield to own the single, making its inclusion in the film anything but an oddity. Watch the video for "She Was Naked".