Director speaks : Control

NDTV Lumiere | Movies | March 12, 2009 at 3:28 am

“Control is a personal film. It is not a music film, at least not in my eyes. My initial assumption of it being a music film made me turn it down at first. By photographing a lot of musicians over the years, I already get pigeon-holed in the UK as a ‘rock-photographer’ so I was very wary of this possible labelling of the film.

In 2004, I took four months off to put a book on U2 together; I’d been photographing the band for 22 years. Sitting at home, looking at my contact sheets of the early 80’s, I started to feel that period again: how the wind feels when you’re waiting for a bus, the despair of having no place to call home, having no money, and the ritual of buying a record and playing it. Times have changed but these feelings became so alive for me again and that included the turbulent year 1979 when I moved to London. I had already wanted a change of surroundings so when Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ album came out, I realised I had to leave Holland to move to where that music came from.

Within two weeks of moving to England, I took the now well-known photograph of Joy Division in the tube station. That in itself is an incredible story – you move countries, meet and photograph the band that inspired your move and decades later that leads to directing a movie.

I have come full-circle in a way and finished this part of my life now; the part which is dominated by the desires and emotions I had in my teenage years. Joy Division and Ian Curtis were very relevant in that period of my life and when I realised that fully, I knew I had to make this film.”

- Anton Corbijn

Control is now available on DVD at leading stores in India.

It is a true, deeply moving story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of UK band Joy Division. A poet, musician and epileptic, Ian had aspirations beyond his small town life in 1970’s England. Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, David Bowie and Iggy Pop, he joined a band and his musical ambition began to thrive. Soon though, the everyday fears and emotions that fuelled his music began to eat away at him. Distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band, and suffering from depression, Ian’s tortured soul consumed him. He was 23.

blogged by Shamath Mazumdar, NDTV Lumière