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A simple morality tale greatly enhanced by it's low budget and location shooting. Wood looks a little lost but still nice to see character driven films being made out there.

It's not a case of whether you know much about Joy Division, but whether or not you like them and have an interest in Ian Curtis.
I can understand why people who aren't Joy Division fans don't rate this film.
Even so, it's worth watching for the cinematography alone.

If you like Joy Division and have an interest in the life of Ian Curtis...it's a must see.

Well i do enjoy their music. I will download this :thumb:

This is my review from the thread in General music:

A review: (SOME SPOILERS)


The life of Ian Curtis has been chronicled in many books and magazines, also (Briefly) in the film 24 Hour Party People. However Control is a much more honest account being that is based upon his Widow's account: Touching From A Distance and is made by debutant film director Anton Corbijn who was one of the very first photographers of the band and hung around the band at the time.

The film is shot in gorgeous monochrome which echo's Corbijn's early band photos and succeeds admirably in recreating late 70's Northern England on a modest budget. This is; however, just one of the many impressive facets of the film.

The cast are exemplary, with newcomer Sam Riley as Curtis himself providing a very stripped down and subtle performance. Samantha Morton has always excelled in whatever she embarks upon and a special mention to Toby Kebbell (Dead Man's Shoes) for an instantly likeable performance of their manager Rob Gretton.

The slow, gentle pace was initially disconcerting for me but as the film grew apace it becomes apparent that this is exactly what the film (and story) deserves. Life for many bands starting at that social and political time could be seen as banal and ordinary. This is not Hollywood excess but Northern working class and Corbijn understands this implicity. Being in a band is not always fame and fortune. It is paying the bills and maintaining dignity.

What becomes apparent but which is never sledge hammered home is Curtis's wanting to do the right thing by his young family but which ultimately ends up with him blaming himself for a mistake that was and still is commonplace: falling in love too early in life. His failure to connect emotionally with his wife at such a tender age caused him massive internal pain and of course, lead to his introspective lyrics.

The film though never portrays Curtis as a bad person who embarks on an illicit affair, it merely documents the immense responsibility that he undertook at such a tender age.

The ending of his life is well known and the film uses a simple black screen and sound f/x to portray this but the subsequent images, and use of one of their most introspective tracks is brilliantly done and I have to say that I had a tear in my eye. Such was the power of the song and simple imagery it confirmed my view that cinema when made with heart and passion can stand side by side with the emotional complexity of music.

Point of interest...according to the Belgian bird they never had sex.
Curtis was too prone to fits during that period to manage the act.

If that was the case, then there is an added poignancy to the relationship that makes it ever more fascinating.

Exactly. She (Annik Honore) claims they just lay together and held each other.
He gets a lot of bad stick for 'cheating' on his wife and for the way he treated her, but look deeper and you'll find a genuinly vulnerable and confused young man with a lot of questions and no answers.
That's why I never bought the rock suicide obsession he was supposed to have.
I believe his suicide was a culmination of many factors, overwhelming him emotionally.

That's exactly what I felt when watching the film and expanded upon in my review. I think the lo-fi approach to the film was succinct.

Meet the Robinsons, 7/10. Waaay too many characters for only 90 minutes.