Control

Review by Dave Kerr | 16 Aug 2007

There are scenes in Control that we might never know the truth about; the signing of record deals in blood by late Mancunian culture mogul Tony Wilson makes for the most famous example. But there is a more unanimously upheld and quite pivotal moment wherein, outside a typically raucous Sex Pistols gig in Manchester, Ian Curtis volunteers his services as a singer to a certain pair of associates named Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook. For dramatic effect, perhaps, the neon light bearing the Sex Pistols’ name in bold suddenly flickers out of action upon their acceptance of the offer, but it’s a sharp reminder that this meeting would come to signify an important sea change that would ripple across the British music scene for decades.

Lending his own ounce of justice to this legacy and coming full circle after photographing monolithic acts like U2, Johnny Cash and Depeche Mode, Anton Corbijn arrives back at the door of one of the first bands he shot with this full-length directorial debut. Based largely on the testimony of Curtis’s widow, Corbijn retains a fly-on-the-wall feel with zero showboating throughout this dissection of the Joy Division frontman’s struggle to resolve fatherhood and husbandry with being an artist and an epilepsy sufferer. Joy Division songs are used sparingly and effectively to punctuate chapters of the descent into frustration. Sam Riley (24 Hour Party People) perfects Curtis’s trademark thousand-yard stare and Samantha Morton shines in the throes of impending tragedy.