Ian Curtis: coward, poet, hero, lonely

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2008)

Ian Curtis was a coward, a poet, a hero and lonely. His legacy is Joy Division, a band he left by killing himself as the band was due to start their debut American tour. As the remnants of the band reformed as New Order, Curtis is personally mostly known through Deborah Curtis' - his wife - book, "Touching From A Distance". Through this film, Anton Corbijn has left his signature visual effects behind to reach further than before, thus allowing this film growth. Filmed in black-and-white, Manchester is portrayed as a gritty town where Thatcher's reign is firmly at hand, and the musical scene is emerging thanks to bands like the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks. Joy Division differed a lot. Curtis personal lyrics and deep voice stamped a deathly human touch upon the band's sound, and the film stamps the same upon his personal life, erasing the line between the two. This is a harrowing tale of a haunted individual who created some of the very best lyrics of the decade. The cinematography is brilliantly executed, the soundtrack is (of course) gleaming and the actors very good: not employing any stars was a good thing by Corbijn, I say. There is a tantamount number of scenes that stay engraved in my mind from this film, which can help resurrecting the kitchen sink-genre. See it. It is human.