TOTAL CONTROL

I was out with friends yesterday; having a good time eating, drinking, and talking. After we disbanded I decided to see a film at the Bloor Cinema. I could make it for the 9 p.m. film. It didn't matter what was playing. The film was Control (2007); about Ian Curtis and his band, Joy Division.

A friend of mine is a Joy Division fan: He was the one who told me about the 1970s British band and the new movie made about some guy who helmed it by the name of Ian Curtis. I had not heard of Joy Division but was aware of the band it morphed into... New Order.

Control is one fine film. The director, Anton Corbijn, has a sure hand and appears to understand the language of film (which is not as common as believed). As can be surmised by the above, I had no preconceptions, really, about this film and the story it was telling. I was absorbed into world of Ian Curtis and his band. Sam Riley is outstanding as Curtis; as is Samantha Morton as his suffering wife. (Morton wrote a biography on her husband -- "Touching from a Distance" -- which this film is based on. She is also one of the producers of Control.)

Often what happens with these bio-pics is that the filmmakers feel they have to document the rise of a group by indexing or charting everything from the first meeting of the future band mates, through the first gigs, the signings, the news reports, people snapping up record albums and so on, to take the audience through the story. What Control does is use a lot of shorthand to illustrate the above.

(Many films use shorthand, of course, but often use clumsy narrative instead. Clumsy in the sense of inefficiency.)

Probably due to budget as much as anything, Control's producers assume we the audience know the usual spiel regarding the band bio-pic. Sure, there is the first signing scene -- in blood, no less -- and various club appearances, but what we get more of is a sense of who Ian Curtis is and what his environment is.

We know how a band "makes it". Time to tell a story. A story about a young man who has various problems, including the medical type, but one who is expected to perform -- he is the front man for the band, and the one most want to see.

My perspective is, see this film if you like good cinema. My perspective is one of ignorance; one who barely knows one band from another, but still likes a smashing story well told.

I do like the music.

Control plays a few more times at the Bloor Cinema... http://www.bloorcinema.com/