film: control (2007)

"A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23"

really enjoyed it. directed with moody passion by famed (still) photographer anton corbijn. sam riley seemed to really find the voice of curtis. samantha morton can seemingly do no wrong.

astonishly, the actors playing the members of the band learned to play their respective instruments and the scenes where the band is playing live is not from tape, but actually the actors playing live.

alasdair

Loved this film, especially as a long time Joy Division fan. I was really stunned by Sam Riley's performance, I think he won Best Breakthrough Performance at the BAFTAS for his role in it. He definitely embodied Ian Curtis well.

I was not sure how I felt about Sam singing instead of using Ian's voice at first but he did an incredible job like you said. I did not know that the rest of the cast learned their instruments and played live for the film, I thought it was just Sam singing! That makes the film even more incredible, Corbijn really got a talented set of actors to tell the history of this band and I really appreciate him not screwing it up and also for bringing Joy Division to a wider audience.

Hell of a movie. Well written, casted and delivered. Top marks.

alasdairm said:

astonishly, the actors playing the members of the band learned to play their respective instruments and the scenes where the band is playing live is not from tape, but actually the actors playing live.

Click to expand...

I know I loved it. And how much did most of them look like the real life band members too.

Great film, reminded me how underrated joy division are.

Awesome. As good as I hoped/expected. Amazed at the quality of the playing (I thought for a while they might be using remixes or alt/live takes of the originals - I picked that they weren't the album versions, but they really sounded just like JD). Surprisingly warm and humourous for a story about a guy who cheats on his wife and kills himself, based on the wife's autobiography. Only thing I wonder, did Wilson and Deborah Curtis get a soft pass in the film, seeing as they contributed to it?

Absolutely, astoundingly good film.

I've seen it maybe 5 or 6 times so far, and I wasn't even a huge Joy Division fan. I had the Peel Sessions, but that was it. It brought me a lot closer to the music, is a pretty damn faithful recreation of it, and manages to paint this beautiful picture, of an incredibly tortured soul, without portraying him as an angel, but a flawed, emotionally challenged human being.

I want to watch it again! 5 stars, best movie of 2008 for me.