Into the Cold

[commonpeople1]

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".

Comments

[icymorning.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting you consider Ian Curtis such a despisable character. In the end the myth completely replaced the fact that he might have been a tough band leader and impossible to focus on what Joy Division were aiming at.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I didn't find Ian a despicable character, just unlikeable. He was undoubtebly a genius, but his personality was so removed/detached, and his treatment of the women who loved him so hot/cold, that I found it hard to care about him in an empathetic way. In the end, I felt his life story was a tragedy, but it didn't move me to tears like, for example, the life of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. Perhaps in the hands of a different director, I might have felt differently?

Someone in the audience did bring up this question about the myth, how Joy Division came and went without much media attention at the time, and it was only through the years afterwards that their impact was truly felt on the small group of people who had the luck to discover their music.

In any case, the movie is really worthwhile seeing. I'd love to know your thoughts on it! :-)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Empathetic is also correct, sweetie.

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

What you say about the cinematography is interesting, because usually when photography types get into film they make the mistake of moving the camera far too much, just because they suddenly can. I like it when most of the movement in film is happening within the frame.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The few times he moves the camera in the film is quite interesting. The real house where Ian and Debbie lived is actually used in the film, and the camera even follows Ian's daily walk through the streets to his workplace. And the final shot, which in my opinion is the most beautiful one in the film, again uses the camera's movement to great effect.

[tonight-we-fly.livejournal.com]

Was your Q&A screening early on Friday evening at the Curzon Soho by any chance? I had the afternoon off work yesterday; when originally booked it was to go and see The Broken Family Band in Oxford, but obviously my personal circumstances have changed since then, so in the end I went to the 3:45pm screening of Control at the Curzon Soho. Perhaps I only missed passing you on my way out by a few moments?

I was actually rather pleased by the extent to which the film ignored the untouchable status of a genuinely iconic musical legend, and instead painted a wider portrait without pulling any punches. Have you read Touching From A Distance? One does get the impression that for all of his (very much deserved) posthumous musical status, Ian Curtis was not a nice man to be around. So few versions of the full picture seem to detail the significance which both his epilepsy and his extra-marital affair played in Ian’s life and death, and I suspect that the realism visible on the screen had much to do with the fact that Deborah Curtis apparently co-produced this film.

This perhaps also overlaps into the way that so many of the peripheral characters were portrayed so convincingly. I was particularly impressed with the characterisation of Rob Gretton, who comes across in the film as a complete wanker with a genuinely big heart hidden somewhere under the layers of bitterness (in real life he was apparently very supportive towards Deborah and Natalie for many years afterwards). And it even works right down to the most tangential of levels; Gillian Gilbert isn’t openly named or identified in the film, yet her body language when she occasionally appears with Stephen Morris is absolutely uncanny for anyone that remembers seeing New Order being interviewed (or appearing on Top Of The Pops) in their earlier days.

Samantha Morton remains a revelation to me. She’s already played to excellent effect both Morvern Callar (in the adaptation of the book by Alan Warner, possibly my favourite author) and the female lead in the Michael Winterbottom film Code 46 (my favourite director of all time). She really stole the show in this film, didn’t she? What a brilliant performance; avoiding even the tried and tested trick of saying so much by saying so little, she absolutely radiated in every shot. I think she’s a monumental actress, and was an inspired choice for this role.

The friend I visited the cinema with yesterday said to me on the way out “What a shame Tony Wilson didn’t live to see that”. She also said that she was glad the picture was shot in black and white, although she almost didn’t notice during the film. In every respect, I knew exactly what she meant.

In other news, I’ve been to Macclesfield.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Oh, we must have missed each other by minutes!

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I haven't read Touching from a Distance, but from what I gathered Annik didn't come out in it so well? I think the director tried to readdress this in the film by making her a more sympathetic character, since it was Ian who actually pursued her instead of the other way around (though that's left ambiguous in the film).

love it

[mirple.livejournal.com]

I love every element of your 'interesting fact about the film'.

i want to see 'Control' even more now!

Re: love it

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I recommend it, and look forward to reading what you think about it. :-)

[dawnkitten.livejournal.com]

Having read the book I really, really want to see 'Control' and I love the little synchronicity - things like that are great.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The film is not as biased towards Debbie as the book is (the director tried to make Annik a little more sympathetic.) And I believe the band members and people like Tony Wilson also pitched in some ideas during the film's development.