Control [2007] | ![Control [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mGfESiZoL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Anton Corbijn
Actors: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson, Joe Anderson, James Anthony Pearson
Studio: Momentum Pictures Home Ent
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
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Rating:  44 reviews
Format: Pal
Rating: To Be Announced
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 122 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7
EAN: 5060116721324
ASIN: B000VRVTCA
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: February 11, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New - Swift dispatch from UK mainland
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Musicians have long proven to be a well of inspiration for film makers, and so it proves again with director Anton Corbjn's telling of the story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division, Control. Based on the book of the same name, the first of Control's many successes is to make prior knowledge of the subject matter unnecessary. And while music is an important part of the film, the movie ultimately focuses in on the relationship between Curtis and his wife, Deborah. It's a moving and emotional rollercoaster, and one realised with exceptional skill and grace by Sam Riley and the ever-astonishing Samantha Morton in the lead acting roles. The former is someone very much to watch, the latter is surely long overdue an Oscar. Credit too must go to director Corbjn, though, who builds up Control with diligence and discipline. He shapes a musical biopic that distinguishes itself from its numerous contemporaries, and while it perhaps doesn't spend enough time with the Joy Division side of the story, it's a film that's otherwise hard to fault. Control, ultimately, not only managed to sidestep many of the contrivances of the genre, but it also offers a raw, electric and emotional experience, and proved to be one of 2007's finest films. Don't miss it. --Jon Foster
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| Customer Reviews:
 Haunting, Stark, Beautiful, A Classic..... October 16, 2007
R. Deighton (Leeds)
57 out of 61 found this review helpful
I've now seen this story played out 3 times, twice at the cinema in the last 2 days and once as a 15 year old Northern lad. In the true spirit of the "Kitchen Sink" genre, it begins like a modern day "A kind of loving" and has a touch of " Room at the top" (the wedding car scene). Sam Riley is outstanding, portraying Curtis in a way that does not show him as the icon he became posthumously but as a somewhat immature 20+ year old man. This of course is countered by a soundtrack that reminds us of his musical genius played by the actors in a very authentic "Garagey way". A portrait of a man torn between his old and new life complicated by the onset of an illness he was struggling to come to terms with.
If that wasn't enough the photography is glorious, every other shot could be hung on the wall, it never looked so good when I was a lad! I understand that Corbijn was trying to shoot the film like a sequence of music videos and with his massive experience as a still photographer it all works beautifully. He sank a large amount of his own money into this project, and you can tell that making it was important to him as a fan and aquaintance of the band You can see his passion and committment to the film throughout. The sequence in the kitchen towards the end of the film was electric, an incredibly haunting dramatic shot. This Film demands the biggest screen that you can find.
I read a review that said you don't watch this film you live it, the first time I saw Control I was angry at the futility of it all, the second I wept tears for lost youth, his and mine. My advice ? Get yourself a really big telly and a really big box of tissues and enjoy what must be considered the best music film of all time. There's no getting away from the end, like Ian's all too short life it comes too soon in this film and there ain't gonna be a sequel, but buy the DVD and enjoy watching it over and over again. A Classic........
Bleak, but beautiful October 8, 2007
Jeffrey M. Black (Stockport)
32 out of 34 found this review helpful
The film fits Joy Division's music perfectly. It is beautifully shot in monochrome, the two leads are superb and the attention to period detail is meticulous. Actual Macclesfield locations are used - particularly the house on Barton Street.
Like most people, I only saw Joy Division via the handful of film clips that exist. The live scenes in the film look totally convincing and Sam Riley captures Curtis's manic, twitching intensity perfectly.
As it ostensibly deals with the breakdown and suicide of a confused young man, don't expect many laughs - though the blunt, wisecracking Rob Gretton character provides much needed light relief. Neither is it a cliched band biopic as it is more concerned with the more mundane kitchen sink drama of a failing relationship.
Joy Division spods can have fun spotting factual errors (e.g. they didn't do the song Transmission for Granada TV), but if you accept that sometimes facts need to be compressed to fit a film, this is fairly faithful to the true events (and yes, Ian did have a donkey jacket with HATE on the back).
Nobody really knows why Ian Curtis killed himself, but the contributing factors are lined up like suspects in a murder case - prescription drugs, infidelity, career pressure, debilitating illness, etc. It doesn't touch upon Deborah Curtis's scary assertion in her biography that Ian might have planned it all along. Best not go there.
If you have any attachment to the band, this is required viewing (and I doubt if you've waited for the DVD). It's the necessary counter-balance to the hedonism of 24 Hour Party people and more in keeping with with the bleak, northern soul of Joy Division's music.
A Film of Intense and Tragic Beauty November 22, 2007
Get Tae Falkirk (Falkirk, Scotland)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Having read and in many cases re-read the majority of books written about Ian Curtis and Joy Division, while living with the music for approaching 30 years the anticipation surrounding the release of "Control" almost became a living and breathing obsession.
I was lucky enough to see Joy Division in Glasgow and remember being transfixed by the presence and intensity of Ian Curtis; it was just the once and fleeting but even now, after all these years, that feeling of witnessing something special and unique still lingers.
As a result I approached Control with a preconception of what the story should tell us and what / who the characters were and how they should be portrayed.
Dealing with the negatives first, for the sake of brevity a lot of the key musical moments were either ignored or given passing reference, i.e. the recording and issue of Unknown Pleasures and the significance of the Closer lyrics as an insight into Ian's state of mind leading up to the 18th May 1980.
That however is the only negative and given the emphasis on the story on the triangle of Ian, Deborah and Annick it was the correct decision. My complaint, such as it is, is probably because I'm a bit of an anorak where Joy Division is concerned and would have liked the film to be longer, totally selfish and impractical.
Sam Riley and Samantha Morton are simply awesome; I was gripped from the outset and immediately put aside my preconceptions and ended up being swept along by the story, the cast (who were all outstanding) and the cinematography, all credit to Anton Corbijn.
The closing scenes were simply overwhelming and I don't have the words to capture the impact it had on me.
This is a film for all; a film for people who can appreciate a story lovingly and painstakingly constructed, or should that be re-constructed; a film for people who wish to be challenged and reflect on their own lives; above all it is a film for music fans and fans of Joy Division in particular.
7/10. 'Isolation' October 7, 2007
jamesewan (London / Grenoble)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
Control is a biopic about the legendary Manchester post-punk band Joy Division, and more specifically about their late lead singer Ian Curtis who hanged himself at the age of 23, having produced only one album and a handful of singles. Such is the legacy of the music made in this short time - indeed it is especially fashionable at the moment with countless pretenders clogging the indie charts - that this is not even the first film to focus on the band and Tony Wilson's legendery Factory Records. Whereas Michael Winterbottom's '24 Hour Party People' was more parodic and tongue-in-cheek, Control is a bleaker, less celebratory film, shot in stark monchrome redolent of the utter blackness of Joy Division's music. Based on a book 'Touching From a Distance', by Curtis' wife Deborah - who also co-produced this film - Control pits the relatively unknown Sam Riley as Curtis against Samantha Morton's Deborah. Much of the pre-film publicity suggested that Riley was picked from total obscurity to play the part, although his appearance (just to confuse matters) as The Fall's Mark E Smith in '24 Hour Party People' suggests this was not his first attempt at acting. It must have been a calculated in-joke then, that at one point in the film Riley's Ian Curtis is told, 'it could be worse, you could be the lead singer in The Fall'.
The fact that this is based on a book by Curtis' wife is a telling one, as is that book's title 'Touching From a Distance'. This film suggests that Curtis was emotionally impenetratable and that while he married Deborah too young, and was unable to reciprocate her love (or fidelity) for him, he was ultimately unable to leave her. It also suggests that his inability to choose between his wife and his Belgian 'mistress' was one of the factors that lead him to take his own life. What isn't so clear - since the story evidently originates from Deborah even if the film is not told from her perspective - is the depth of Curtis' feelings for the other woman (Annick). Annick is initially presented as a wide-eyed European groupie, and her character is not fleshed out enough for us to emphasise with the subsequent agonising torment that Curtis suffers as he is forced to choose between her and divorce from his wife. Furthermore, Curtis is never shown as anything but remote and perfunctary with his wife - whose marriage with he recognises as 'a mistake' - and it isn't totally clear why he was unable to leave her. Was he tortured with guilt or was he just too young to take responsibilites for his actions? As with many biopics, we are constricted by the facts. At one stage Annick says to Curtis "I don't know what's happening, I don't feel I know you, and sometimes I feel you don't know me". As a viewer we can empathise. But is that the point? Was Curtis ultimately unknowable, as emotionally impenetratable and isolated as Joy Division's music? The film also focuses on his epilepsy and finally his inability to cope with the growing demands of fame and success - but ultimately can anyone know the true nature or torment of such a person?
The film is also occasionally reduced to voiceover to flesh out Curtis' thinking where the film lacks the skill to convey this through other, subtler means. Sometimes these voiceovers are clearly derived from letters but in other cases it is unclear. If they are not from letters, whose words are they? This is lazy filmmaking and a shame given the intensity brought to performances by Riley and Morton. The fact that Dutch director Anton Corbijn is a traditionally a photographer by trade is also telling. The bleak Northern English towns are lovingly photographed and framed, and he uses long tracking shots not so much to establish a scene or even a mood but rather to immerse the viewer in some kind of visual iconography associated with the band and their music. As with the 'scene' featuring Curtis walking through his neighbourhood with the word 'Hate' on the back of his jacket while Joy Division's music pounds in the background, it is striking to look at but ultimately a visual conceit as empty as a pop video. Despite all the criticisms, I found myself in tears at the end of the film, which is the highest compliment I can give. For if Curtis' pain is unknowable, Deborah's pain - in the devestating final sequence - is heartbreakingly real. It is for this that I give this film four stars, and let my heart rule over my head on this occasion.
 Emmerdale effing Farm October 28, 2007
Robert Corbett (Renfrewshire)
8 out of 36 found this review helpful
Overhyped, overrated. Control is basically an elongated monochrome episode of Emmerdale farm.
While it will probably be considered heresy: I don't think the film's much cop. The narrative arc is flat. The characters aren't fully drawn. It is very slow.
Perhaps the worst thing the film does is to portray Ian Curtis's life as some kind of East European high-rise bleakness, which, of course it wasn't. Ian Curtis was from the Barratt house class, ie what the class-obsessed would term 'lower-middle'.
Also there is precious little of Curtis's dog Candy in the film.
Compare this film to Jim Sheridan's "In the Name of the Father". Sheridan's film really is a film, whereas Control is just a photo album, a nice one, mind, but just some pix really.
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