Anton Corbijn’s Control

Earlier, I wrote about the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, listing a bunch of films that I’d love to see were I there. One film that I accidentally overlooked was Anton Corbijn’s Control, a biopic of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis. Which has been garnering a lot of acclaim since its screening. Twitch’s Todd Brown — who is currently living it up on the Riviera — has seen the film, and he’s also singing its praises:

You will be forgiven if you were expecting Anton Corbijn’s Control to be a vapid exercise in style over substance. After all if you take one of the world’s most in-demand music video directors and set him the task of shooting a biography of one of the most iconic rock figures of the 1980’s, one whose style is being openly nicked by a number of current acts, it is not unreasonable to think the urge towards posturing and gimmickry would be overwhelming. Thankfully Corbijn and his film are far, far better than that.

I did some scrounging around on YouTube and found a couple of clips related to the film. The first is a feature from Dutch television that focuses more on Corbijn, but does contain some behind-the-scenes footage. This second clip contains more footage from the film, but the quality isn’t all that great (the clip was captured with a camcorder).

Control is due for a wide release later this year. I hope The Ross is paying attention.

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