Thoughts on "Control"

My aunts and uncle enjoy music and possibly spent most of their pocket money on records and later CDs. Every now and then, I get the urge to rifle through their collection and I was slightly surprised that they didn't have anything by Joy Division or even New Order. So I'm listening to U2 instead, wishing that I a cable to play "Shadowplay" off my ipod.

Control is a biographical film about Ian Curtis and the title hints at a lot of the themes in his life. For those looking for a more quirky (less depressing, less personal) account of how Joy Division shot to fame and about Factory Records' successes, see this.

Everyone knows about Joy Division and Ian Curtis' suicide so watching this was in a way like holding your breath and waiting for the end. But in the 116 minutes, this film did quite a bit to flesh out a portrait of a young Curtis, forced to come to terms with his marriage, his epilepsy and his new-found fame, all in the space of 4 years, between the age of 19 and 23. The film makes use of Curtis' poetry (which I didn't even know about!). Here's one I found off the web, written as a Valentine's poem for his wife Deborah :

I wish I were a Warhol silk screen
Hanging on a wall
Or little Joe or maybe Lou
I'd love to be them all
All New York city's broken hearts
And secrets would be mine
I'd put you on a movie reel
And that would be just fine

He looked (and was) the pained artist, smoking, sitting in empty rooms staring into space, his performance vocals rarely rising above a dispassionate monologue. One thing I was perhaps expecting to come through a little more was how controlling Curtis was towards his wife. And for some reason, the epileptic fits seemed a bit toned down but remain just about poignant enough to add to the tension which builds towards the end. Aside from that, I came away feeling like I knew what compelled him to unravel like that at the end and hang himself. I don't think we'll ever know how much of it was dramatized but certainly the kitchen-sink drama going on with Deborah seemed realistic enough.

I would say I enjoyed this - it's a treat for any Ian Curtis fan and for most general viewers looking to find out more about him.