The Interview

He’s best known for his stark cinematic portraits of people like Kurt Cobain, Miles Davis, U2 and of course Joy Division. Dutch lens man Anton Corbijn moved from his native Holland to England specifi cally because of the latter’s music infl uence. Thirty years on, he’s responsible for putting the group’s story on celluloid, offering an intimate look at the band’s early days—especially the troubled life of its lead singer Ian Curtis. Corbijn talks to I-S about the making of Control.

Casting a total newcomer (Sam Riley) in the lead role—was that a conscious decision?

Initially, I was looking for a well-known actor for this role, but I later realized that an unknown one would make you believe far more in the character. There was something in him that made me think of my time with Joy Division and after meeting Sam, I knew that there couldn’t have been a better person to embody Ian Curtis.

What was the trickiest part tackling a subject as legendary as Ian Curtis?

One of the challenges was to put forward the idea that the fi lm is like a “lost story” of Ian Curtis and not a rock fi lm. It is so easy to label things like that and deny the movie a proper audience. So the acting part was really important to convey this message and Sam did a very good job.

What was the most difficult scene to shoot in the film?

It would be the epileptic seizure scene towards the end before Ian committed suicide. It was very painful to see, shoot and equally painful to have Sam do the scene.

How did you separate fact from fiction?

We talked to many people before we made the movie to confi rm events in Ian’s life. Even the guys from New Order, his mom, sister and family have very confl icting and different versions of his life. So it was important to talk to as many people as possible to separate fact from fi ction.

The film works on a pretty straightforward narrative. Was that a conscious choice or did you actually have an initial more artistic approach to the subject/film at first? Would you have done it any other way?

The original script was one that moves backwards in time but I fi nd that it did not add drama to the movie. The drama would be served better if it had a linear storyline.

It’s been dubbed as one of the coolest films last year. Did you want it to become cool? Are you surprised by the attention that it’s been getting?

I’ve been cool all my life! I didn’t dream of it (the movie) having so many good reviews because it was my fi rst fi lm. So yes, I was surprised by all the attention.—Zaki Jufri

The Film Review 3.5/5Starring Sam Riley and Samantha Morton.

There’s nothing in Control that we’ve never seen before. From director Anton Corbijn’s affected black-and-white photography, to the straightforward narrative, to the commendable acting, Control is an all too hyped-up fi lm that plays more like a Sunday TV movie. Take away its subject of a tortured musician/icon who inspired similar sensitive, young would-be poets and what you have is one of the year’s most lackluster fi lms. Next to Oliver Stone’s monumentally underrated and brilliant The Doors from 1991, Control is child’s play. The plot aims to maintain a traditional biopic rhythm by tracking Curtis’s solemn life early in the fi lm. Married too young to teen sweetheart Deborah (Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar) and resigned to a middle-class life in Manchester, Curtis’s fascination with rock star trimmings and extravagant stage performers such as the Sex Pistols turned him on to music, where he joined a few ambitious fellows and formed Warsaw, later known as Joy Division. Control continues to pilot through the expected sights: The group’s time with Factory Records honcho Tony Wilson, its rise to underground eminence, the unholy grind of touring and his affair with a hottie groupie. Curtis’s depression underscores the film, an inherent moodiness aggravated by the birth of his daughter Natalie and the development of epileptic seizures. Joy Division fans will love some of the music and creative references peppered throughout the film: Curtis was a working-class David Bowie and Iggy Pop fan and wannabe artist with the requisite volumes by William Burroughs and J.G. Ballard on his bookshelf—but we find such details rather trivial in a film that’s neither enlightening nor interesting. Director Corbijn could have done much more with the group’s deep, dark and layered music as a reference point, but chose to play with a boring, glum narrative. Not cool.—Terry Ong

The CD Review 4/5

Various: Control/Warner

If your memory of the ‘80s was all bubble perms, Wham! and unfeasibly large mobile phones, then you obviously weren’t doing it right. Because although ‘80s music is often mocked for being nothing more than synths- and hairspray-heavy, at the core of the decade’s indie scene was a dark melancholy, best exemplifi ed by the brooding, pained songs of Joy Division and its tragic front man, Ian Curtis. Control, the new biopic about Curtis, who took his own life in 1980 just as the scene was taking off, is a sometimes dark but reverent take on the era. So too is the movie’s soundtrack, which features Kraftwerk, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, New Order, Iggy Pop, The Sex Pistols, and of course, Joy Division themselves, represented through classic tracks like “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Atmosphere”. But it’s not all brooding tunes here—The Killers’ remake of the group’s “Shadowplay” is absolutely rockin’. This wide-ranging collection of songs is a refreshing reinvention of the ‘80s as a gritty challenging time to be a musician. A welcome relief from the shoulder-padded cheesefest of popular memory.—Sarah Fung

Control is on May 10-11, The Substation Theatre, 45 Armenian St., 6337-7535. $14 from www.gatecrash.com.sg