Control
UK/USA, 121’ ,
2007
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Directed by: Anton Corbijn
Script: Matt Greenhalgh
Producer: Tony Wilson, Deborah Curtis, Todd Eckert, Orian Williams, Iain Canning, Peter Heslop
Production company: Becker Films International, Claraflora, EM Media, NorthSee
Cinematography: Martin Ruhe
Editing: Andrew Hulme
Music: Joy Division, New Order
Cast: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Joe Anderson, James Anthony Pearson
Format: 35 mm, b/w
Running time: 121'
Synopsis
‘Control’ is a biopic film about the late Ian Curtis (1956-1980), lead singer of the legendary post-punk rock band Joy Division. The screenplay is based on the book Touching From a Distance, by Curtis' wife, Deborah, who is also a co-producer of the film. The film details the life of the troubled young musician, who forged a new kind of music out of the punk rock scene of 1970s Britain, and the band Joy Division, which he headed from 1977 to 1980. It also deals with his rocky marriage and extramarital affair, as well as his increasingly frequent seizures, which were thought to contribute to the circumstances that led to his suicide on the eve of Joy Division's first U.S. tour. The title is a reference to one of Joy Division's more memorable songs, ‘She's Lost Control’. The song title is believed to be a reference to an epileptic girl Curtis befriended while working at a rehabilitation center in Manchester. The girl died during a seizure and thus inspired the title.
Awards Cannes Film Festival 2007
Golden Camera - Special Mention
Directors Biography
Anton Corbijn, born May 20, 1955. is a photographer from Strijen in the Netherlands. He is widely acknowledged by the music industry, mainly for being the creative director of the visual output of prominent bands like Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade. In 1994. Corbijn directed a short film about Captain Beefheart for the BBC called ‘Some Yoyo Stuff’. On 17 May 2007 Corbijn's first feature film Control about the life of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis premiered to rave reviews Cannes Film Festival.
Web pages Official website
Official trailer
Reviews Corbijn's determination to play the story straight has not prevented him from turning in a hugely stylish, and at times very funny, portrait of a man, and a band, on the run. It's all here - the camaraderie, the fighting, the borderline insanity / Alison Rowat, The Herald
Sam Riley gives a superb performance as Ian Curtis, intuitively recreating his on-stage mannerisms, from the stock-still hunch over the mic, with eyelids lowered, to the crazy, elbows akimbo running on the spot routine, which like nothing else made him look like some sort of visionary outpatient / Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Location and screening schedule: matinee: SC Cinema, Wednesday, October 24th at 10.00 premiere: SC Cinema, Wednesday, October 24th at 22.30 reprisal: Cinema Europe, Thursday, October 25th at 16.00
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