Control (2007)

Director:

Anton Corbijn

Writers:

Deborah Curtis (autobiography "Touching from a Distance")
Matt Greenhalgh (writer)

Release Date:

12 September 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Plot:

A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23.

Plot Keywords:

Band | Singer | Suicide | Musician | Kitchen Sink Realism

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 25 wins & 20 nominations

Cast

Sam Riley	...	Ian Curtis
Samantha Morton	...	Deborah Curtis
Alexandra Maria Lara	...	Annik Honoré
Joe Anderson	...	Peter Hook
James Anthony Pearson	...	Bernard Sumner
Harry Treadaway	...	Stephen Morris
Craig Parkinson	...	Tony Wilson
Toby Kebbell	...	Rob Gretton
Andrew Sheridan	...	Terry Mason
Robert Shelly	...	Twinny
Richard Bremmer	...	Ian's Father
Tanya Myers	...	Ian's Mother
Martha Myers Lowe	...	Ian's Sister (as Martha Myers-Lowe)
Matthew McNulty	...	Nick Jackson
David Whittington	...	Chemistry Teacher
Margaret Jackman	...	Mrs. Brady
Mary Jo Randle	...	Debbie's Mother (as Mary-Jo Randle)
Ben Naylor	...	Martin Hannett
John Cooper Clarke	...	Himself
James Fortune	...	MC
Angus Addenbrooke	...	Colin
Nicola Harrison	...	Corrine Lewis
June Alliss	...	Corrine's Mother
George Newton	...	Studio Owner
Mark Jardine	...	Other Band Manager
Herbert Grönemeyer	...	Local GP
Paul Arlington	...	Hospital Doctor
Tim Plester	...	Earnest Richards
Joanna Swain	...	Maternity Nurse
Joseph Marshall	...	Alan from Crispy Ambulance
Laura Chambers	...	Claire
Eliot Otis Brown Walters	...	Footballing Kid (as Elliot Brown-Walters)
Monica Axelsson	...	Tony Wilson's Girlfriend
Lotti Closs	...	Gillian Gilbert
Eady Williams	...	Baby Natalie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nigel Harris	...	Tramp (uncredited)

Directed by
Anton Corbijn

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Deborah Curtis		autobiography "Touching from a Distance"
Matt Greenhalgh		writer

Produced by
Iain Canning	....	executive producer
Anton Corbijn	....	producer
Deborah Curtis	....	co-producer
Todd Eckert	....	producer
Lizzie Francke	....	executive producer
Megumi Fukasawa	....	co-producer
Peter Heslop	....	co-producer
Satoru Iseki	....	co-producer
Akira Ishii	....	executive producer
Korda Marshall	....	executive producer
Orian Williams	....	producer
Tony Wilson	....	co-producer

Cinematography by
Martin Ruhe

Film Editing by
Andrew Hulme

Casting by
Shaheen Baig

Production Design by
Chris Roope

Art Direction by
Philip Elton

Costume Design by
Julian Day

Makeup Department
Barbara Taylor	....	hair assistant
Barbara Taylor	....	makeup assistant
Jeremy Woodhead	....	hair designer
Jeremy Woodhead	....	makeup designer
Andy Seston	....	makeup daily (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Andrew Foster	....	second assistant director
Toni Staples	....	first assistant director
Katy Stenson	....	third assistant director

Art Department
Josh Fifarek	....	set designer
Cassie Leedham	....	graphic designer
Chris Richmond	....	stand-by art director
Tim Stevenson	....	set constructor
Matt Wells	....	props

Sound Department
Iain Anderson	....	adr recordist
Nick Baldock	....	assistant sound editor
Peter Baldock	....	supervising sound editor: UK
Grant Bridgeman	....	sound assistant
Ben Carr	....	adr recordist
Daniel Crowley	....	boom operator
Carl Edström	....	sound effects editor
Adele Fletcher	....	adr editor
Linda Forsén	....	sound coordinator
Thomas Huhn	....	sound re-recording mixer
Thomas Huhn	....	supervising sound editor
John Midgley	....	production sound mixer
Lucas Nilsson	....	foley artist
Jamie Roden	....	adr mixer
Jonas Jansson	....	sound effects editor (uncredited?)

Visual Effects by
Mats Holmgren	....	digital colourist
Fredrik Nord	....	digital effects artist

Stunts
Riky Ash	....	stunt coordinator
Riky Ash	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Tim Battersby	....	first assistant camera: "a" camera
Robert Binnall	....	camera operator
Andy Clarke	....	best boy rigging gaffer
Rachel Clark	....	camera trainee
Warwick Drucker	....	key grip
Brian Fawcett	....	electrician
Dean Rogers	....	still photographer
Christopher Ross	....	camera operator
Basil Smith	....	daily focus puller
Barry Squires	....	camera assistant
Owen Tooth	....	video tape operator
Julian White	....	gaffer
Sophie Wilson	....	second assistant camera: "a" camera

Casting Department
Vanessa Baker	....	adr voice casting
Brendan Donnison	....	adr voice casting
Benjamin Till	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Fiona MacKinnon	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Maria Dahlin	....	post-production coordinator
Barry Moen	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
Peter Clarke	....	music editor
Ian Neil	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
John Oxborough	....	unit driver
Rod Patterson	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Lorraine Bagshaw	....	stand-in
Andrew Brand	....	floor runner
Neil Calder	....	completion guarantor: Film Finances Inc.
Vicky Chapman	....	location assistant
Mel Churcher	....	dialect coach
Lee Clyne	....	unit medic
Helen de Winter	....	delivery coordinator
Paul Dray	....	laboratory contact
Zoe Flower	....	unit publicist
Dan Hodgett	....	location services
Rob Jones	....	location manager
Simon Jones	....	tranport coordinator: London
Hakan Kousetta	....	production legal advisor
Alastair Mackay	....	location assistant
Louise Melzack	....	additional floor runner
Keeley Naylor	....	unit publicist
Tina Pawlik	....	assistant production coordinator
Rachel Robey	....	production coordinator
Val White	....	script supervisor
Emma Yeomans	....	assistant location manager

Thanks
Monica Axelsson	....	special thanks
Rebecca Boulton	....	special thanks
David Bowie	....	special thanks
Bart Chabot	....	special thanks
Natalie Curtis	....	special thanks
Paul Dray	....	special thanks
Steve Ellis	....	special thanks
Josh Fifarek	....	special thanks
Brandon Flowers	....	special thanks
Martin Gore	....	special thanks (as Martin L. Gore)
Herbert Grönemeyer	....	special thanks
Charles Hannah	....	special thanks
Annik Honoré	....	special thanks
Laura Kanerick	....	special thanks
Henric Larsson	....	special thanks
Alexandra McGuinness	....	special thanks
Paul Morley	....	special thanks
New Order	....	special thanks
Kate Ogborn	....	special thanks
Iggy Pop	....	special thanks
Tracey Pryor	....	special thanks
Lou Reed	....	special thanks
Mick Rock	....	special thanks
Peter Saville	....	special thanks
Siouxsie and the Banshees	....	special thanks
David Sultan	....	special thanks
Robert Walak	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• 3 Dogs and a Pony
• Becker Films
• Claraflora
• EM Media (executive production)
• NorthSee
• Three Dogs and a Pony
• Warner Music

Distributors

• Alliance (2007) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Ascot Elite Entertainment Group (2008) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Atlantic Film (2008) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Capelight Pictures (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Cinema Without Frontiers (2008) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Future Film (2007) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Paradiso Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Style Jam (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Weinstein Company, The (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Weinstein Company, The (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Atlantic Film (2008) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Barbar Film (2008) (Turkey) (all media)
• Daylight Films (2008) (Brazil) (all media)
• Future Film (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
• La Fabrique de Films (2007) (France) (all media)
• Momentum Pictures (2007) (UK) (all media)
• Paradiso Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Weinstein Company, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Chimney Pot, The

Other Companies

• Arion Facilities  dailies telecine transfers
• Art4noise  ADR recording
• Art4noise  dialogue editing
• Art4noise  sound post-production
• Cinema Investment  funding
• Kodak  motion picture film supplied by
• Ljudligan  sound post-production
• Offline Editing Company, The  post-production facilities
• Panavision UK  camera equipment provided by
• Sapex Scripts  post-production services
• Warner Bros. Records  soundtrack

MPAA:

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

UK | USA | Australia | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Canada:14A | USA:R | Netherlands:6 | France:Unrated | Australia:MA | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-13 | Germany:12 | Sweden:7 | Japan:PG-12 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Norway:15 (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, UK

Company:

3 Dogs and a Pony

Trivia:

James Anthony Pearson, who plays Bernard Sumner, learned to play guitar in two months for his role in the film.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Ian is recording the vocals for "Isolation," he appears to be using a modern Shure KSM27 studio condenser microphone.

Quotes:

Ian Curtis: So this is permanence; love-shattered pride. What once was innocence, has turned on its side.

Movie Connections:

References 24 Hour Party People (2002)

Soundtrack:

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Rise and fall of a rock legend in evocative black and white

The first thing that strikes you about 'Control' is its silence, and the chilly beauty of its black and white images. As a still photographer first-time director Anton Corbijn photographed Joy Division in black and white during their short existence. He knows how to get the remorselessly grim feel of the north of England in the late Seventies. (The boys came from the outskirts of Manchester. Joy Division formed in 1976.) This film (there's a documentary just coming out on the band too) is loosely based on a memoir of her marriage by Deborah Curtis, lead singer Ian Curtis' young wife, who had a baby girl by him and then tragically found him after he'd hanged himself in 1980, two months short of his twenty-fourth birthday, just as the band was to tour America for the first time.

'Control's' strength is a certain recessiveness. In the English style, it's offhand and avoids huge dramatic crescendos. That's refreshing. And besides the images and the restraint, the film is worth seeing for the concert sequences. The cast actually plays the Joy Division music live, and Sam Riley, who plays Ian Curtis, not only closely resembles him, but is a riveting and intense, almost at times scary, performer. When he says the public doesn't know how much of himself he puts into his performances, we know what he means.

The film is excellent at showing Ian's dilemmas. The band is a sudden success. He has an attack in their car as the band returns from a gig. Doctors tell him he has a form of epilepsy. He's given a fistful of pills to take every day and told to have early nights and stay off the booze. How faithfully he takes the pills is unclear but he suffers from their side effects in various ways, while late nights and booze are essentials of his existence. It doesn't seem that the English doctors knew very well how to treat him, and he was so busy performing he didn't take the time to go to specialists and have more extensive tests.

Ian had gotten married to Deborah (Samantha Morton) early--too early. On the road he meets a Belgian part-time journalist, Annik Honoré (Alexandra Maria Lara), and they fall uneasily in love. He's not strong enough to decide between the two women. Fear that his disease will only get worse hounds him, and the fits go on. Riley is fascinating to watch as he undergoes an increasingly visible meltdown. Other cast members are cyphers, though Joe Anderson, who has the role of Max in Taymor's Across the Universe, is the lead guitarist. Morton has a drab role but Deborah's unfortunate situation is present as a constant counterpart to Ian's story. The two other important characters are the Manchester music guru Tony Wilson (Craig Parkinson) and the band's wise-guy manager Rob Gretton (Toby Kebbell).

The creative inspiration of the band, the nature of their songs, the cast of their lyrics, the reason why Joy Division is a cult band today when it only existed for four years--these are matters the film is unable to elucidate. Watch it for the cool visuals, for the tall, soulful Sam Riley, and for the terrific live performance scenes. Enjoy the understatement, and the silence. Don't expect more.

Harvey Weinstein has chosen both for Control and for the soon-to-open Todd Haynes Bob Dylan film I'm Not There to have a slowly-unrolling distribution system, and hopes to bestow early cult status on both films by having them premiere at that temple of cinephilia, Film Forum, in lower Manhattan, New York City, and wait for the buzz of the cognoscenti to multiply and spread. It may work. But both films are tough sells. But A.E. Scott of the NYTimes has said Control is "enigmatic and moving, much in the manner of Joy Division's best songs." And that's a good send-off.