"she said i've lost control again"

Went to a Substation screening of Anton Corbjin's "Control", and first things first - never again will I pay S$16 (there was a booking and collection fee, great) to watch a movie in utter discomfort. The air-conditioning was not working, so the humid air being exhaled and inhaled by about 80 adults in a small room was being circulated (ineffectually) by coolers. The seats were dreadfully hard plastic things covered in black cloth and the backrests of the seats were angled unusually slow so one is forced to slump back, which meant that one's knees would then jut into the seats in front, because the leg room was tragically limited.

But yes, the movie. Good, striking, beautifully shot, but strangely impersonal, mainly because I think people just didn't know all that much about Ian Curtis (or they're not telling) and why he ended his life. They've used Joy Division's songs as a kind of barometer of his inner self - "She's Lost Control" as his marriage unravels, "Transmission" as Joy Division gets bigger. Sam Riley was quite impressive - he gave Mr Curtis a certain naive quality throughout which I found quite believable, and he was especially good in the singing parts. The use of black and white gave the movie a flat feeling - a montage of stills rather than actual living, breathing people.

It made me think that perhaps Mr Curtis never really lived, because he was so unable to deal with real life and its complications and he was really a disconnected person that couldn't reach anyone or be reached by anyone. The impersonality of it was what made me sad, not the fact that he decided to kill himself at 23.

The supporting cast was excellent, Toby Kebbell as Rob Gretton was a riot, and Samantha Morton as Mr Curtis's wife Deborah Curtis was wonderful, heartfelt, the only person not an enigma and touching because of that. Alexander Maria Lara is beautiful, but as Annick (with whom Mr Curtis has an affair), she is slightly annoying because all she does is to smile, whisper, and gaze coyly.

Flawed, but definitely worth watching.



Pictures from www.imdb.com