“Black and white imagery was always part of the presentation of Joy Division, from the minimalist black and white line illustrations of their album covers to the enduring legend that there are no color photographs of the band.”

Film expert Brian Zabawski continues his exploration of great B&W movies, exclusively for bwphotopro.com

By Brian Zabawski

Control was the 2007 feature-film directing debut of the gifted Dutch-born photographer Anton Corbijn. Well known for album covers of U2, Depeche Mode, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and many others, Corbijn found the perfect fit for his movie debut with this story of Joy Division’s troubled lead singer, Ian Curtis. 

Before coming to international prominence as a black-and-white-centric still photographer, in 1979 Corbijn went to England to document the burgeoning punk-rock scene. One of the bands he met was Joy Division; he shot what he’s said are some of his favorite early photographs, always in black and white, of this band. Black and white imagery was always part of the presentation of Joy Division, from the minimalist black and white line illustrations of their album covers to the enduring legend that there are no color photographs of the band. 

So it is fitting that Control is a black-and-white film, one of a handful of such productions in recent years.

“The collective memory of Joy Division is a black and white memory,” says Anton Corbijn in a DVD ‘Special Feature’ interview. “They dressed… in their musicals (band videos) in black and white.  Every single photograph you see of them offstage is black and white.” 

When it came to the step of shooting a contemporary feature film on black and white stock, however, problems arose.  Explains Corbijn in the DVD interview: “We tested all the films, and the black and white films we used all tested so grainy – which is one thing - but the grain also moved around-and it became just another element you had to look at - and I didn’t want that in the film. And then we tested color films – we seemed to have a lot more control over it - and, being able to flip it to black and white - in a way that made it look like a beautiful black and white film – so we shot it that way.”

“While I think it’s quite strong visually”, elaborates Corbijn, “I didn’t want it to be a so-called ‘good-looking’ film. I wanted it to be a poetic kind of photography.” The film displays its visual poetry in subtle and unselfconscious ways, for the most part. The camera is mostly still, with few moves, and hand-held work is limited to live performance scenes. One standout shot occurs near the film’s end, when Samantha Morton’s character Debbie returns home to discover her husband’s suicide. The camera stays outside the house, observing from a respectful distance as Debbie lets out her horrified screams off-camera. (The shot recalls a similar set-up, used by Alfred Hitchcock in his penultimate film, Frenzy. There, Hitchcock’s camera tracks back from the exterior of a house where a murder has just occurred, and the blood-curdling screams come from a woman who has just discovered a strangler’s victim. That’s all off-screen however. All the viewer sees is the building’s placid exterior.)

Control is also comprised of some exquisitely rendered wide-screen images of English life, and explores an undercurrent of attendant psychological disquiet of that life. A careful consideration of the film ranks it in the class of such important British black and white films as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, This Sporting Life, Darling, The Servant, and perhaps even Repulsion. It also bears another distinction – it is one of a handful of films to depict the rock and roll life in a dramatic context that is realistic, emotionally resonant and literate.

One B&W title conspicuously absent from the above list, despite its sharing of a ‘60s origin and the subject matter of the rock-band milieu, is Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night. Control is its antithesis – avoiding the fast jump cuts and good-time vibe of that Beatles classic, just as Joy Division’s music - somber, spare and introspective, was a rebellion against “phony Beatlemania,” to quote The Clash. It was an attitude, if not a sound, that Joy Division shared with their new wave-punk brethren.

Adapted from a memoir by Ian Curtis’ wife Deborah (beautifully played by Samantha Morton), Control, balances its ostensibly downbeat saga of a suicide-bound young man with a depiction of Curtis’ mostly optimistic personality, which became distorted by his battle with epilepsy and the side effects of the prescription drugs taken in an unsuccessful attempt to control his attacks. Also given equal weight in the scenario is the story of Ian and Debbie’s romance and marriage, which evolves into a compelling romantic triangle when Ian falls for a sultry French-speaking Belgian rock journalist, Annik (a strong performance from Alexandra Maria Lara). Add to that the story of Joy Division’s rise to cult-band status, and you even have moments of dry humor, supplied with gusto by the band’s manager Rob Gretton (memorably played by Toby Kendall), and the wise-cracking bandmates.

Control follows the last seven years of Ian’s life, from a glitter-rock- loving teen practicing his future singer moves in front of a mirror (to the songs of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Roxy Music) to his unlikely day-job as a counselor in an Employment Exchange office.

In a casting-coup, the largely unknown actor Sam Riley embodies Ian Curtis in looks, singing voice and personality – a startlingly effective feature debut performance from a young actor with only stage and TV credits. That Riley and his fellow actors were able to effectively re-create the sound of Joy Division for the film’s live performance sequences adds a further element of realism.

The realism extends to the film’s use of some of the actual locations of Ian Curtis’ life, including the quasi-suburban town of Macclesfield, England.

One of the film’s few moving-camera shots is a lengthy Steadicam run which picks up Sam Riley’s Ian departing from his what was Ian’s actual house, and taking the short walk to his place of employment – also the real-Ian’s jobs office – wearing a punky jacket emblazoned with the word “Hate” across his back. The thoughtful and considerate Ian removes the provocative jacket before settling in at his office-station.

The screenplay, by Matt Greenhalgh, seamlessly integrates narrative with the subject matter of Joy Division’s songs. When, at his day job, a woman wearing a padded head restraint succumbs to an epileptic fit on the office floor in front of him, Ian first encounters the effects of epilepsy. Later, when a phone call informs Ian the woman has died –  we hear (and see Ian writing) the lyric’s of one of Joy Division’s better-known songs. “She’s Lost Control,” grasping the context of both the song (and movie’s) title.

Joy Division’s lone hit single, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” still gets airplay today. In the film it is used, perhaps predictably, in the context of Ian’s affair with Annik, as it threatens to destroy his marriage with Debbie. The effect is emotionally honest rather than maudlin.

Director of Photography Martin Ruhe was another member of Control’s crew (and cast), with no previous feature film credits. As Producer, Corbijn had trouble convincing his backers to take on another first-timer on a film already filled with feature neophytes. Ruhe used his TV-commercial shooting experience to the advantage of this modestly budgeted feature. Case in point – a scene ostensibly taking place in a moving car at night, where Ian has his first epileptic fit while driving home with the band from their first London show - was shot in a studio, with Ruhe employing moving lighting tricks learned on a commercial shoot. The elegant, wide-screen compositions, the limited camera movements, and evocative lighting employed all go a long way in helping Corbijn to bring the emotional context the project requires.

Control was a fortuitous coming-together of first-time creative elements working hard to establish themselves artistically. Despite its subject matter of a young man of promise, and his suicide, it manages a to convey a degree of positive feeling and optimism. The emotional impact of the climax may induce hard-earned tears in viewers. Perhaps one reason this reviewer finds it a curiously optimistic film is because so few films dealing with rock musicians have ever managed the depth of feeling, realism and emotional honesty conveyed in Control.

After the suicide of Ian Curtis the members of Joy Division maintained their musical creative core, re-emerging as New Order. In a multi-decade career, New Order is said to have sold over 20 million albums worldwide, and by the late ‘80s were filling arenas and the occasional stadium. Anton Corbijn likewise has continued his idiosyncratic film directing career – most recently with an art-house crime-thriller The American, starring George Clooney.

Control played to packed houses in its limited opening engagements, and was well received critically (even winning at Cannes the Regars Jeunes prize for best first film), but it deserves to see its audience expand beyond the cult of devotees of Joy Division and New Order’s music.

As an addendum, late in 2010 Rizzoli Books has published “Joy Division,” an art photography book featuring photographs by Kevin Cummins.  This New Musical Express photographer (where Corbijn also served as chief photographer) was granted special access to the band between 1978 and 1980. And, the 400 some-odd photographs he took of them may eclipse (in number, at least) Anton Corbijn’s own prolific output with the band. 

Plus, all the photos are in this 2010 “Joy Division” book are in black and white.

Control / Directed and Produced by Anton Corbijn.  A Weinstein Company Release.

Reviewed on Miriam Collection DVD.  Starring: Samantha Morton, Sam Riley, Alexandra Maria Lara.  Screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh based on the book “Touching From a Distance” by Deborah Curtis.  Director of Photography: Martin Ruhe.

In Panavision  (anamorphic widescreen).  Running time: 2 hours.