listen to the silence, let it ring on

So after months and months of waiting, finally Control is in cinemas, and I had myself a ticket for the special screening and Q&A with director Anton Corbijn at the Curzon Soho (yay!)

I'm sure the film doesn't need much of an introduction as I've rambled on about it before on here, but as imdb has it, it's "A profile of Ian Curtis (Riley), the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23." Except it was more than that.

The film was just beautiful. There are some images that are just stuck in my head - the scene where they're recording 'Isolation' in particular, and when Debbie Curtis comes home to find Ian's body (not that the audience is ever shown, as we linger on the outside of their terrace house once Debbie has gone in), and is crying and sobbing for help in the street, I actually got goosebumps. Or perhaps that was just when they cranked up the air conditioning.

The acting was spot-on, Sam Riley and Samantha Morton were amazing. I loved the film and want to see it again.

However. The guy next to me laughed too loudly at totally inappropriate and not-funny moments (to the extent that I started to wonder if he maybe knew the actor/s involved and had some weird private joke going on), which really bugged me (so I'm a cinema purist, so sue me).

And then there was the Q&A. This seemed like a golden opportunity: see the film I've been dying to see and get to hear the director talk about it after. Now maybe I'm a little more aware of how questions are asked now I've conducted a few interviews, but the guy hosting would make a lengthy statement about some aspect of the film and then basically just leave room for Corbijn to give some kind of yes-or-no answer - so it's to his credit that the director managed to reel things out some. Then there was the audience. People were all trying to be way too "Hey look at me, I know technical shit about film, I'm so clever; were you trying to demystify the legend of Joy Division??" (to which Corbijn replied "Errr no?"). It's just disappointing that he was there for us to grill and no one came up with any truly interesting or original questions (myself obviously included, but I didn't stick my hand up and ask an inane one just for the sake of doing so. Perhaps I should have).

But the film was still great. And I'm not even going to mention The Killers' cover of 'Shadowplay'. Oy vey.

i've lost control again

Last summer I was asked by one of the magazines I freelance for to do an urgent piece for them, an interview they'd just been granted that they wanted to get in the issue they were about to close. A day's turnaround is what they said. But fuck it, when they told me what it was, I jumped at it. It was a phone interview with Sam Riley during a break in filming Control. He seemed a sweet lad. It was pissing with rain, typically for England towards the end of August, and we spent a little too long taking the piss out of Nottingham (sorry Notts) where they were filming - and where I lived for three years whilst at uni. Obviously when it came to writing it all up I left that stuff out...

This recent buzz about it emanating from the Cannes Film Festival made me think of it again, and hunt down the trailer on youtube. Oh my. It just looks - well, I for one can't wait for this film to come out. Isn't Samantha Morton just a doll? And Sam Riley looks great. And I swear I see the Lenton tower blocks that I used to live right next to in Nottingham for all that time... Ahh the Church Estate and your crack whores, pre-teen delinquents, shootings, frequent fires and joy riders. Good times.

Read the article here. Watch the trailer (apols for the French subtitles, couldn't find a clean version) below.

My final thought on the matter: as the sister of an epileptic, should they really show Ian staring at a static tv screen?? I'd've thought he'd be writhing on the floor with just one look at it, like my sister would be. Meh.