Anticipate "Control" - The Ian Curtis biopic...

I hope to God that the utter cunt Moby will not be making music with New Order. That would be even worse than the fool Corgan's involvement with Get Ready.

Ian Curtis Biopic Cast
Casting has been announced for the upcoming Joy Division film, Control. Newcomer Sam Riley will play the brilliant-but-doomed singer Ian Curtis, who committed suicide in 1980 on the eve of the band's first American tour. Samantha Morton, who has previously been nominated for Oscars for her work in Woody Allen's Sweet And Lowdown and Jim Sheridan's In America, will play Curtis' widow, Deborah. (It is her book, Touching From A Distance, on which the screenplay is based.) German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, who just finished filming the new Francis Ford Coppola film Youth By Youth, will play the singer's lover Annik Honore. The film will be the first feature from acclaimed photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn (Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box"). Deborah Curtis and Tony Wilson, Factory Records founder and the subject of 24 Hour Party People, will both be credited as co-producers. According to NME, New Order will rerecord some Joy Division tracks, as well as lay down some new songs, for the soundtrack. The production team hopes to begin shooting in Manchester later this year.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1232477,00.html

"At last, we can do this without that wanker Hannett and all his echo!"

http://www.owensboro.org/page.php/Departments/Transit/images/SamRiley-.jpg

http://www.lwtua.free-online.co.uk/jd/ian_curtis_control_s.jpg

Moby will not be involved in this project. he'll be brewing herbal tea and counting the ways he sucks vegan cock.

Moby does ask for it. In other news, the Woodtick mix Go came on the iPod today and i loved it.

is it gonna be in black & white? maybe it should be. it's always weird when you see colour footage of WWII.

moby showed them his trousers?

anyway, this is going to suck, isn't it? i hated "touching from a distance", and i just don't see the point in this film at all. 24HPP nailed the whole thing perfectly. we don't need another factory film (unless it's about section 25, natch).

Spoiler alert: IAN KILLS HIMSELF

How many years will someone in the US have to wait to see this, btw? I don't live in NY or LA either.

How can you hate "touching from a distance"? It was Debbie Curtis' perspective, and for all it's fault it's an honest memoir.

curtis is one of thee most overrated personalities in the entire factory story

ian that is

Tell me more

Any celebrity who kills himself becomes 74.2% more compelling.

Artists Whose Premature Death Failed (or Would Fail, were the Tragic Event to Happen) to Secure Them Morrisonesque Levels of Legendary Status

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Tuomas - erm, what? It's not a formulaic film at all, and you seem to be wanting a film with a different plot to what actually happened.

well no he wants to see a film about new order not joy division

the movie doesn't really put much thought into whether his suicide could've been avoided.

how exactly would you represent that cinematically? doctor in a white coat comes out at the end and gives the audience a stern talking-to about mental health?

I'm not sure how to represent it cinematically - maybe have some of the supporting characters talk about his mental condition, plus what happened to it after he started taking the medication. As it was, no one in the movie seemed to pay proper attention to his very obvious psychological problems. Maybe it was like that in real life, but I kinda doubt it. Anyway, what the film could've avoided was to depict him as this lone, silent, tragic figure right from the start, because that sorta gave the impression his death was inevitable.

It's not a formulaic film at all, and you seem to be wanting a film with a different plot to what actually happened.

All films based on "what actually happened" are fictionalized anyway, the filmmakers always choose a particular approach to portraying real events. I thought Control was a very well made and effective movie (I did cry in the end), but the way it depicted Curtis's life was quite cliched and not very inventive or insightful. Okay, maybe he really did live a stereotypical life of a tragic rock hero, but that doesn't mean you have to depict it stereotypically. I thought 24 Hour Party People did a nice job in avoiding that, while at the same time presenting it as the tragedy it was.

As it was, no one in the movie seemed to pay proper attention to his very obvious psychological problems. Maybe it was like that in real life, but I kinda doubt it.

Rob Gretton, Tony Wilson, and all the members of New Order have said countless times that they didn't think anything was seriously wrong with him, and that they were all having too good of a time to notice anything regardless.

Anyway, what the film could've avoided was to depict him as this lone, silent, tragic figure right from the start, because that sorta gave the impression his death was inevitable.

This is exactly how Debbie Curtis portrays him in her book -- depressed from a young age and generally obsessed with death.

I'd much rather see a movie about a band...who eventually manage to get over it, and in the end become more popular than ever.

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I haven't seen Ray, but yeah, I certainly liked Walk the Line better than Control.

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"Control hints that he was an undiagnosed depressive...."

I'm no expert but, based on some of items in that appalling cocktail of drugs that were apparently being prescribed for him in one scene, it looked to me rather as if he had been diagnosed as a depressive - which was news to me.

Maybe, especially given prevalent attitudes towards mental health issues in '79/'80, Deborah Curtis wasn't keen on having this fact publicised.

Maybe (especially given the state of their marriage) Ian didn't tell her.

Weren't the drugs prescribed for his epilepsy? The movie never said they were for something else. Don't know if epileptics would actually have so many different drugs though, even in the seventies.

As I said I'm no expert, but there were drugs included in that list which I've heard of as treatments for depression (e.g. Dexedrine) but which I'm not aware of having ever being used as treatments for elilepsy; although of course it's possible that e.g. they were prescribing the Dexy's to counter-act some of the side-effects of the Barbiturates!

As I understand it there were a lot of drugs about that were being experimented with in different combinations for controlling epilepsy in different combinations, often in almost random combinations..... It did seem unlikely that they'd have started out prescribing that many at once right from the outset which was another reason why I wondered if it was more than just epilepsy that was being treated (although of course there may well have been may have been artistic licence being used, maybe to list all the medications he ended up on rather than the ones that were prescribed from the outset).

Would anyone care to transcribe that list of drugs so we can look 'em all up?!?

Hah I just saw Grant Gee's "Joy Division" documentary last week and you'd have prob enjoyed that more Tuomas - aside from being mostly light-hearted, it also ends on a positive note, following the band through the aftermath of Ian's death and on as New Order.

Whether anyone did anything to help - the hypnotism was Bernard Sumner's idea, he thought it might help after Ian came crying to him one day about feeling suicidal. But yeah, most of them didn't think anything was wrong because a) being naturally reserved, Curtis was good at hiding his feelings most of the time and b) after he started his epilepsy medication, he went through extreme mood swings - happy and jokey one day, and bawling his eyes out the next. I don't think it was something the band or anyone else around knew how to handle or predict, they just thought it was the side-effects of the drugs. So he wasn't completely depresso all the time - Bernard and Hooky admitted to playing elaborate pranks on Curtis and Annik on tour, and just generally having a fun time with them.

And practically everyone close to Ian (except for Annik) admitted they never paid attention to his lyrics or dreamed that he might have been writing about himself.

This is exactly how Debbie Curtis portrays him in her book -- depressed from a young age and generally obsessed with death.

Yeah, and considering when the movie starts, he was about 17; there were and are still loads of 17-year-olds who go through that stage of being dreamy and obsessed with poetry and death. Dude just never got out of it, or never had time to.

".... he went through extreme mood swings - happy and jokey one day, and bawling his eyes out the next.... So he wasn't completely depresso all the time....

That's as good a description of bipolar disorder as any I've read.

Although, of course, in '79/'80 they'd have called it "manic depressive illness": a term which was far more emotive and far more stigmatised.

I thought it sounded like bipolar but I've never heard of it being triggered by epilepsy medication before. But yeah, the band were pretty adamant that he had never behaved like that before he was on the meds.

If you suddenly start giving Dexys and Barbs and all sorts of other stuff all at the same time to someone who's already got a chronic neurological disorder, then who knows what new symptoms / conditions this might create or indeed what pre-existing conditions it might suddenly make substantially worse?

Just the fact of being diagnosed as an epileptic; especially back in those days when relatively little was known about the condition, let alone how to treat it; was hardly going to be seen as a cause for jubilation.

Was quite enjoying this beautifully shot biopic about depression, fits and infedelity until the following....

At about 1hr.25m ,the actor playing that conceited Mr Madchester smarms through the door into the JD dressing room to reveal a Husker Du flyer on said door

Husker fuckin Du! 1980! In Madforitster!

They did incongruously play FAC51 but that was in about 1985?(I was there twenty odd basterd years ago...)Or maybe I was just too young for their pre Land Speed Record tour of the UK ?

Unbeknown to Mould, this dawn of the 80s appearance at Dance Central and his necking of an early 'e ' sent subliminal messages into his brain which emerged disasterously 20 years later, on the dance floors of DC ,with Cher's vocoder thrown in as an added bonus.

It's a reference to when they had the wrong poster on a wall in "24 hour PP"

Also, Fer, did you suddenly ZOOM into the present day, like Malcolm McDowell in "Time After Time" when he found that present day nickel?

I enjoyed Control, it was beautifully shot and stuff, but I still think JD are overrated and Curtis was a dick.

Well, there's always that film about Joy Division to come!

I just, obviously, kept thinking of 24hr Party People, which I love, and thinking that 24hpp was by far the better film and Tony Wilson by far the more interesting character.

I didn't get the impression that Curtis was a lifelong depressive; I got the idea that he was slightly maudlin, very into the idea of the romantic hero, and a bit of a dick, who was diagnosed with epilepsy and then given a cocktail of drugs that made his system a total mess, which, combined with the turmoil between his band lifestyle and home lifestyle, caused him to top himself.

Interestingly the guy who played Rob Gretton played Paddy Considine's retarded brother Anthony in Dead Man's Shoes; Paddy Considine having played Rob Gretton in 24hpp.

i really want to see this

this british co-worker described it just now as "the story of a young boy who becomes a guitarist"

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finally saw this. above average, especially the photography, but my expectations were wrong going in. it just seemed like the visual manifestation of a plot i already knew, and maybe that is all a biopic should be. but i always hold out hope for some sort of interesting insight. and i don't mean onto a specific person's life but rather insight into life in general from the specifics of one person's life. for me, to call something an Art anything, there has to be more than depiction, even if direct literal depiction is the aesthetic of Art in question (a lot of carefully chosen literal depictions can add up to something much more). Joy Division's music accomplishes that for me, which is why reducing it simply to the emotions of IC is reductive. i understand the desire to not make the typical rock star story and portray larger-than-life characters, but describing him as just a regular dude is just as much about uncritical veneration as the other approach; it's just a type of veneration more appropriate to the expected audience for the film.

Some of the actors/actresses did quite well, but it's still a crap film. I find your post a bit hard to understand, but I don't really trust anyone who loves this film without reservations, so as far as I'm concerned, you're doing fine.

It's funny, but to me, the one scene that stands out the most is the one where Ian is walking from one building to another (I know I probably already said this upthread somehwere). All he's doing is walking...and smoking a cig and looking "cool". But the problem is it's clear that the whole POINT of that scene is just to play an amazing early JD song while he's walking. And that's IT. That's the whole POINT. And it's like...if that's all you have to say...forget it. How do you justify that scene? I really can't. It's like literally putting up a great big sign in the middle of your film saying "my film is shit, I have nothing to contribute...but look at Ian looking "cool" while this song is playing". It's pathetic.

I agree with that for the most part ... a lot of the perceived magic in the film stems from taking these characters that we know mainly from words and pictures, and animating them on a movie screen in the same black and white hues that we know and love. It's like watching the comic book characters pop out of the page and seeing them act out the story right there in front of you. I can appreciate that for what it is, but yeah, it makes for a superficial film and I was hoping for something different.

Yeah I think some of the sentences in my post are summations of much longer arguments I have rolling around in my head that are beyond my abilities to explain clearly. Perhaps it is easier to say that the film has all the conventions of an art film without being one. Long takes, carefully framed shots, carefully chosen locations, excellent use of all of the tones between black and white, relative lack of "shot -> reverse shot" editing, are all hallmarks of some of the better films made but in the end, I didn't finish this film with any greater understanding of anything than when I started.

Finally watched Control the other day. Now I know why female interest in me has picked up about 1,000% since this came out.

stfu, liar

Not totally, but I love when movies come out about pale, sensitive, troubled types. It's like ... oh yeah. Am I right, brothers?

note: pale, sensitive, troubled types with very small frames. jack pot.

what are you going to do? When you realize I'm more goth than you?

when you realize that I have outgothed you from the minute you were born, what are you going to do?

I just saw this movie. It was probably as good as it could have been, given what it was.

The Curtis character seemed uninteresting and undistinguished, a mixed-up NW chancer who worked in an office, sang in a band using a bizarre, silly syrupy American accent, and was unsurprisingly keen on the blandishments of a cute chick rather than his understandably clinging wife. I guess the one thing that would make him interesting is if one liked the band Joy Division.

And yet - so many movies are so bad. This movie wasn't actively bad at all. It seemed better made than most pictures, and it did what it did quite competently, really. I just don't think that the subject matter was compelling.

I just, obviously, kept thinking of 24hr Party People, which I love, and thinking that 24hpp was by far the better film and Tony Wilson by far the more interesting character.

Yes, exactly.

I've wanted to see that film for ages and yes - even in Control, Wilson seems more interesting than anyone else.

You haven't seen it?! You should definitely change that. I haven't seen it since it first came out but recently added it to my netflix to watch again.

Thinking about this film still makes me angry. What a piece of shit. Looked okay I suppose, Anton should stick to sub 5 minute movies.

yeah of all the films made about this particular time, 24HPP is still far and away the best. also funny as hell.

they should film some section 25 scenes and splice those into future versions of 24hpp

Yes, Pinefox, please see 24PP. So much more satisfying, even if Section 25 & Crispy Ambulance didn't get any mentions.

Oh, thanks - I'd still love to see that movie, though I don't know those bands you mention. It has been on my own film rental list for ages but they never send it to me.

one of the most enjoyable things about 24hrpp is how much tony wilson DNA went into alan partridge, and then fed back into its source here.

Lots of really great extras on the 24HPP 2-disc DVD edition.

The Grant Gee film "Joy Division" is good too. It has just the right touch of humor, irreverence, and tragedy. In contrast, Control comes off dull, ponderous, and heavy handed. Maybe the Factory story is told best by the people who lived through it.

From ImDb...

Sam Riley (who plays Ian Curtis) and Alexandra Maria Lara (who played his lover Annik Honore) married in August 2008 and now live in Berlin

Aw.

As I said on the Labour thread, I watched this last night.

Funny moment, at one point DebbieCurtis is searching through Ian's stuff looking for incriminating evidence, and moves aside a copy of the NME with Ian's photo on the front. I'm sure that's the 'memorial' edition published after Ian's death...

That's the secret sf twist.

i was really excited to see this

i was bored to tears, probably because--as has been suggested upthread--i already knew the plot

would watch a 2 hour "concert film" of the cast reenacting the les baines douches show

anton corgi shouldn't be allowed with 20 feet of a narrative

Ah, but it has one of my favourite "rock band" film moments...

Call it "it's in my fuck off pocket"