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Anton Corbijn, Control

by Chris Flippo
01/13/2008

“In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more,/ As the assassins all grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor.” -Ian Curtis, “Shadowplay”

Control begins with everything falling into place for Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. He marries, becomes a father, and writes music that manages to cross the considerable gap that exists between an artist and the audience. However, you would be hard-pressed to call the film a joyous experience. The tragic events that close Control hang over he film from the first frame, and you sense that it is only time before Curtis collides with his dark destiny. The film takes us on a very difficult journey, but it is not an unrewarding one. Art doesn’t always have to leave you feeling good.

For the uninitiated, Ian Curtis was the leader singer of Joy Division, a rock group from Manchester. Soon after their breakout EP, An Ideal For Living, was released, Joy Division quickly rose in popularity and to greater and greater critical acclaim. However, depression set in on Curtis. Stricken with guilt over a failed marriage, Curtis’s life spun out of control and, at the age of 23, he took his own life. After his death, the rest of the band were transformed into New Order, another noteworthy band that made a splash in the mid-eighties.

Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) begins the film as what seems to be a troubled teen. However, as Control progresses, you realize that Curtis’s problems ran much deeper. Curtis was the tragic type of man whose initial fire burns brightly, but is extinguished far too quickly. As sad as it is to say, some people just aren’t capable of leading an ordinary life. You were never going to find Kurt Cobain at a P.T.A. meeting.

The film is remarkable in how it makes Curtis’ pain palpable. Every scene is written and acted as one more step toward the inevitable. Even the colors of the film itself hint at the tragedy that is to come. Though filming in black and white can sometimes be used to mask otherwise unadventurous filmmaking, here it makes a peculiar sort of sense. Its only appropriate that the world of Ian Curtis be devoid of color.

Control strikes many of the same notes as other biopics. Yes, director Anton Corbijn gives us the Tortured Genius, the Adoring Wife, and the usual riff between life at home and life on the road. However, Corbijn is wise enough to concentrate on aspects of Curtis’s life that other biopics would have glossed over. A lesser film would have developed Curtis’s affair at the expense of his relationship with his wife, Deborah (Samantha Morton). Control sidesteps the many cliches (and trappings) of the biopic by keeping this relationship the focal point of the film. I would venture to say that Control is as much about their relationship as it is about Curtis.

Control makes a fitting companion to Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (which is also now showing at the Athens Ciné). Both films take the biopic formula and reevaluate it. They may not reinvent the wheel, but they certainly give the car a fresh set of tires. As a visceral experience, Control is both horrifying and fascinating. As a film, it is further proof that 2007 was an exceptional year at the movies.