CANNES, FRANCE--This sounds incredible. Anton Corbijn actually directed a video for Joy Division, and has done a 2 hour movie casting the late-Ian Curtis with an unknown (Sam Riley). The movie by Corbijn is titled "Control." It's based partly on the book by Curtis's widow, Deborah, titled "Touching from a Distance," which I have read. What you get from the book is that she didn't know her husband very well at all, but it's a good read. It sounds like her book is just one source of the screenplay, and that Corbijn has done his homework here. Joy Division was probably the last word in rock.
After 1980, it gets sketchy. Most people don't know that Genesis P.Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and Ian Curtis had a correspondence (telephone) for years, and that both of them attempted suicide at the same time. Gen lived. Ian Curtis is the James Dean of nihilist-rock. I love his dead ass. If you had felt the hope that punk stirred (only to self-destruct and end by 1978), and you had epilepsy, you might have hung yourself by 1980 too. He deserved better, and so do we. Now if Corbijn can do a biopic on Captain Beefheart (Don van Vliet), the world will be a much better place. Ian Curtis was 23 when he hung himself.
"I was just besotted," the Guardian, 04.11.2005: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1456541,00.html
Reuters Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070518/film_nm/cannes_joydivision_dc
Although the film is not in competition, it did receive a standing ovation at Cannes. Here's a really good report / video http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/316701/All+Categories?c=20191
ReplyDeleteCorbijn is probably the only person who could do the subject any justice--that's why I want him to do a Captain Beefheart biopic! Thanks for the link!
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