One of the best films I've ever seen

Rating: 10/10 (15 July 2012)

"Control" is one of my favorite contemporary musical cinebiographies ever made, ranking next to "The Doors" (1991) both going for a certain accuracy in terms of presentation of events, their great poetic sense in presenting their main characters and without surrendering to sensationalism, exaggerations (although Oliver Stone's film flies away with some imagination but it's good anyway) . Cinematically speaking, the film offers a view on things that are close to the object investigated, through a careful cinematography that recreates style, the period, the way we perceived the life and work of Ian Curtis and Joy Division. It's art in its great state. Most important, the man moving the whole show is Anton Corbijn, video clip director close to the Joy Division, he knew them all, and he makes of this work his film debut. He couldn't pick anything better and more appropriate for a promising beginning.
For the challenging role of Curtis, Corbijn has on his side the newcomer Sam Riley, who is one of most amazing talents to rise in the last years. This marks his first screen credit after a few TV movies but he stands firm on the ground by singing, acting and being Ian Curtis, the late vocalist of Joy Division. There's no one like him, so impressive, so young and already acting like a veteran. His performances carries the whole film, going through so many different stages, depressed, angry, shattered, afraid of going to the stage, romantic. We follow Riley/Curtis (gotta make this association) from the moment of start of the band, the first meetings, then writing lyrics from the things he personally felt and seen (example, how he came up with "She's Lost Control" after seeing a girl having a seizure on the floor at the hospital he worked), the recognition and attention the band got from Tony Wilson (Craig Parkinson), the first gigs, the success and eventually his fall, and the band's dissolution (turning into New Order and the rest you can follow on "24 Hour Party People", which is blasé compared to "Control").
There's also room for Curtis love relationship with Deborah Curtis (played by Samantha Morton), life in family, and his love affair with journalist Annik Honoré (Alexandra Maria Lara), that seems to be used as an indicative of how things got messed up for the man. From the beginning we know that he's a man with many problems, suffered with depression and seizures that often ruined his performance on stage. His lyrics evoke and paint things in a darker, sad way. Just take a look at their most famous song "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Real artists who make genuine art must reflect themselves, in one way or the other. Curtis was all that. I'm wonder where did Riley took it all to compose his melancholic portrayal of the man.
"Control" shows the dimension of Ian's problems but it leaves the real reasons for suicide to the perpetrator. Pressure, difficult in dealing with fame, the problems at home, his medical condition, the depression, addiction, who knows? All we know is that on May 18, 1980 he listened to Iggy Pop's album "The Idiot", watched one of his favorite films Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" and hang himself, leaving everything behind, becoming a rock n'roll icon, eternally remembered by his fans. He just lost control and ended all. It's not our task to judge him. A note I make to the film's great accomplish is by not showing this final moment. We see the ritual (and I want to know how all of this become a fact, with the album and the movie), he enters in the kitchen and the rest is seen through a distant shot of Deborah entering in the house. It would be too painful to see that, we like Curtis too much to see a shocking moment like this.
With no lost moments in it, "Control" is full of so many great scenes that is difficult to select just one to say that this movie is special. Walking down the streets with a jacket that says "HATE"; the confusion during a performance where Ian couldn't go to the stage, replaced by a uncharismatic lead singer singing "Disorder" and booed by the crowd (the song's inclusion is not an accident); the conversations between Ian and Annik; "Atmosphere" for the conclusion was perfect and the band concerts, amazingly played by actors Joe Anderson, Harry Treadaway and James Anthony Pearson playing respectively Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner. Outstanding musical numbers!
I don't know how much of it was legend or fact or condensation of both, but the true thing I've seen here was epic and it looks and sounds completely real and believable to me. Curtis would be proud of this. 10/10 RIP Ian.