Control (2007)

Directed by: Anton Corbijn | 119 minutes | drama, music, biography | Actors: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson, Joe Anderson, Nigel Harris, Nicola Harrison, Toby Kebell, Alexandra Maria Lara, Matthew McNulty, Ben Naylor, James Anthony Pearson, Tim Plester, Robert Shelly, Harry Treadaway

‘Control’ is the feature film debut of the Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn. With this film, Corbijn returns to where it once started for him: England in the late 1970s, the era in which punk and new wave determined the music and fashion image of the young generation. As a 24-year-old photographer, Corbijn had traveled to England on spec to photograph his musical heroes. His first assignment was for a post-punk band from Manchester that had released a debut album that was somber, intense and innovative. The album was called Unknown Pleasures; the Joy Division tape. Almost thirty years later in ‘Control’ we see the rise and fall of this legendary deprirock band and the personal descent of singer Ian Curtis.

Although Corbijn of ‘Control’ did not want to make a music film, the music certainly plays a dominant role in the first hour. Because the music is not too complicated, the actors played the songs themselves. And how! Especially the intense Transmission gets a performance here that bursts with energy. In between the acts we see how the band is struggling with the necessary problems; from a painful managerial change to the first epileptic seizure of singer Curtis.

While the film is reasonably successful as a band biography, it cannot be surpassed as a chronicle of Ian Curtis’ personal downfall. Without ever simplifying things, ‘Control’ shows how the combination of illness (epilepsy), strong medication, relationship problems, work pressure and exhaustion put too much weight on the frail shoulders of the singer. That singer is also played formidably by the unknown actor Sam Riley. Riley shows a wide range of moods, from romantic daydreaming to deep despair. With this he makes Curtis a credible and deeply human character, for whom you as a spectator have to show sympathy.

Still, ‘Control’ has not yet become a perfect film. The third pillar on which the film rests, Curtis’ relationship with wife Debby and mistress Annik, does not turn out well. While there is only one Joy Division, unfaithful husbands can mute an inland sea. To create such relationships in an interesting way, much more is needed than ‘Control’ does here. Aside from unnecessary (and sometimes awkward) scenes – the marriage proposal, the decision to have children, the inevitable quarrels – the conversations between husband and wife are weighed down by an excess of clichés. It gets even worse when mistress Annik shows up, a pale character who has nothing to say at all.

Fortunately, it remains with that one flaw. For the rest, Corbijn has delivered a successful and remarkably confident debut with ‘Control’. It was to be expected that the film would be tasteful in terms of (black and white) photography. It is even more remarkable that the debuting director was able to inspire his actors to such strong performances. But the fact that Corbijn sends his audience home with a lump in their throats is perhaps the biggest surprise. We were already proud of Anton the photographer, now we are just as proud of Anton the director.