Yesterday,
I went to see Anton Corbijns movie “Control”, about the rise and fall of Joy Division and in particular, Ian Curtis.

The story of Smith is told with immense insightfull empathy, and luckyli avoids the typicall story of sex, drugs and rock`n roll and early death. I mean, there is beer, there is tranquilizers, but the movies keeps a precise focus on the time, and again avoids the worst clichés about the 1980s.
Corbijns background as fotographer allows the city of Macclesfield to serve as an extra narrative layer, that becomes an important substance of Curtis`strive, work and lyrics, but also an equally important substance, confronted with the choices that clearly constituted Curtis` struggle: Macclesfield, wife and kid – Joy Division, lover and success.

In that sense the movie comes out honest and without exploitation, and is really narrowed down to intense tale of love and hate.
I hadn’t listened to any Joy Division albums for quite some time before watching CONTROL, and it surprised me how the music in many ways came out with another outreach, more warmth, hope and expectations. It was in no way what I really heard listening to Joy Division in the 80s: I mirrored the pain and weltssmerz, did not in the same way observe the cry for, and of love, I just stigmatised and froze intellectual numbness, wanting to be just that: dark and twisted, troubled and depressed. Really I think in the 80s scizofrenia almost was, to those who wasn’t, a trend.

But besides that CONTROL also portrays the period with more quality to it than the flourescetn reminiscences that surface these days of shit silly close, and in my book, the worst coprperate music style ever.

When FACTORY records signed JOY DIVISION…in blood (by the way, a hilariousy funny scene), it was in way ways one the most important times in contemporary rockmusic history, pointing towards a brand new scene.

To me CONTROL is firstly a honest portrait of tormented and frightened, supertalented young man, constantly kept in insecurity by severe epileptic seizures, some early existensial choices, the dawn of instant success: things that sparkled a big gap of confrontional expectations, to which he finally sadly caved in.
CONTROL clearly stands out as one the best and important movies out for a very long time, and the performances by Sam Riley as Ian Curtis, and Samantha Morton as his wife Debbie was nothing less than brilliant.

I never doubted them for a minute..