CONTROL - THE TRUE STORY OF A MUSIC LEGEND

I watched this film a while ago during the Istanbul film festival. I loved it. The time went by and my memories of it dimmed a bit. I still remembered it as good though. Now, I shared this on my facebook page the other day so some of you may remember this comment but here’s the thing. I was wrong. It isn’t good. It’s f.cking brilliant. It’s the kind of film that makes you (well me anyway) run out, buy everything Joy Division ever recorded and listen to it on a loop for ever. And I would; only it wouldn’t be very practical. I will rant about why I like Joy Division’s music and more specifically Ian Curtis’s singing in just a sec. Let me tell you about the film first.

Ian Curtis was a rather extraordinary teenager. He was just over six feet tall, very into both reading and writing poetry (no doubt the birth of his lyrics later on) and rather quiet. He had friends, went out from time to time, but didn’t talk much. He met Debbie when they were in their late teens and by the time they were 18, they were married, much to the surprise of his friends. When a few of the local lads took him on as the lead singer of their band (then called Warsaw), they didn’t expect him to change their lives. At rehearsals (and this is actually quoting one of the band members) he just mumbled into the microphone barely audible. But once they hit the stage… Ian’s booming voice took over the room. His dancing (now a thing of legend) was incomprehensible to most who assumed (wrongly, history teaches us) that he was very high on drugs. He was on a natural high, lost in the music. Fame swept over Joy Division taking them to heights they never expected. In the meanwhile, Ian was diagnosed with epilepsy that doctors couldn’t seem to be able to help him with. He had a daughter now, but his marriage broke down when he fell deeply in love with Annik a Belgian embassy worker. And everything aside, Ian never wanted to be famous. Feeling unable to control his health, his emotions or his career, Ian Curtis took his own life, aged only 23 years old. Control is his story.

Corbjin, originally a photographer of great fame, does a fantastic job in this film. And his direction is only rivalled by Sam Riley’s performance, portraying the awkward, sensitive, angst filled lead singer of Joy Division. The film shows a Curtis torn between his responsibilities as a husband and father and his heart. I am not generally speaking at all supportive of extra-marital affairs but one can see how this happened. They were married so young. And then they grew up. Debbie continued loving Ian, but Ian had a new life with his new found fame. What is more, the film portrays his relationship with Annik as something very deep and emotional, not just a “passing fad”. Could one blame him?  I don’t think so.

The film itself, shot in black and white, gives a very clear portrayal of the underlying angst that dominated Curtis’s life and finally overcame him. The emotions are so sensitively, artistically conveyed, I defy you to not feel literally heart-broken by the end of the film. And the one other thing dominating the film is it’s extraordinary soundtrack. Filled with all the classics by Joy Division along with music from greats such as Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols Control is a true trip back in time. And possibly a chance to discover Joy Division. When I’m feeling down, when I’m confronted with a challenge I not sure how I am going to overcome, I find there is something incredibly and strangely cathartic about the music of Joy Division. Curtis’s singing, along with the lyrics convey a certain sense of sadness. This cannot be likened, in literary fashion, to a stormy sea. This thing is grey. It is dense. Like a fog, only it grips at your throat. And it is no shape, no form, no end. For most of us, the fog then slowly clears, for Curtis, it did not. But what makes me feel good about his singing is that, to me, that is what sadness sounds like. I don’t know what else to call it, but Ian knows. He gets it. And it’s very cathartic to listen to his voice and know that he gets it. Or got it. And knowing that someone else got it, always clears the fog for me. I am not sure if that last paragraph makes a lot of sense to anyone but me. But I guess what I’m trying to convey is that listening to Joy Division and watching Control are very healing, soothing things for me. And this film matters to me, a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

P.S. As an interesting aside, it’s rather sweet to note that the actor who plays Ian, Sam Riley and the actress playing Annik, Alexandra Maria Lara, started a relationship after meeting on the set of the film five years ago and live together in Berlin to this day… 

THE TRUE STORY OF THE BIRTH OF THE "24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE"

This, my dearies is for all “I was born too late” generation out there. It’s a brand of music popular with people born in the ‘70s really, but us, the early ‘80s generation just about caught onto its tail. And of course, there are some exceptional young people out there (although not that many these days) who recognise the genius of bands such as the Sex Pistols. Joy Division. James and the Happy Mondays (although this last band was a bit of a British phenomenon. Still.). Anyway, this is their story. The true story of the Manchester music scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s and more pivotally, of the one man who made that magical atmosphere possible : Tony Wilson.

Tony Wilson (played nothing short of brilliantly by Steve Coogan) is a journalist. A Cambridge graduate, he has high hopes of his life. The stories he is sent out to cover do not always match these expectations. Except one. One event that will change his life – and in fact the lives of many others. Now, the event in question is the first concert the Sex Pistols ever played in Manchester. This was back in the late ‘70s, before they actually took off you have to remember, so there were only 42 people there. Now, this looks more like a flop than a historical moment, I know. But as Wilson points out throughout the film, whether it’s crowded or not does not necessarily mean it’s not historical (I love his metaphors so I’ll let you discover them for yourselves).  So Wilson’s life changes. He opens a club. A record label. Signs bands like Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. Thus begins an absolute whirlwind of a night job for Wilson. His style is both unorthodox and not entirely sound economically. The changes he makes to the Manchester music scene however? Ground breaking.  The question is, does he have the stamina to see this whirlwind to the end? Or will the only end he actually sees end up being his own?

This film is brilliant on so many levels. Director Michael Winterbottom – and I’m sure Coogan as well as he’s quite the master of formats and such like – has made a film a bit unlike any other I have seen before. First of all, especially at the beginning – and I’m rather sad they didn’t follow through on this tendency but can see how it would be impractical – the film’s footage is interspersed very cleverly with actual footage of the great bands of the time singing. There are a lot of references to real life, a lot of celebrities of yesteryear (including, amusingly, Wilson himself – the real one that is - , don’t worry about missing him though, he gets pointed out to you) have cameos. It is very evidently a very affectionate film made by a crew that loved that music and / or that era. What is also original and  good, however, is the fact that Coogan will, every now and then, turn to the camera and explain what is going on. Not as Wilson though. As Coogan. It’s a brilliant device, a sort of Brechtian distanciation that pushes us to think about what we’re watching, and the fact that it is not actually fiction. Well the film is fiction, but you know what I mean, the events really happened. Most of the time. But don’t worry, Mr Coogan will explain that to you as well…