DVD reviews: Control – 70

Although it’s a biopic of the late Ian Curtis, leader of vastly influential post-punks Joy Division, Control is less a movie about a musician than a movie about a man who also happened to be a musician. It’s an important distinction and one that arises from basing the script on the book Touching From A Distance, written by Curtis’s widow Deborah. Sure, the singer is presented as visionary, genius, saviour of indie rock, but to the film’s credit Curtis is also portrayed as a screwed up young guy who’s inability to resolve the conflicts in his life proved fatal, and it’s this that prevents Control from tipping into hagiography.

The downside of using the book as source material is that many of the characters are thinly drawn. The other members of Joy Division, in particular, emerge as shallow caricatures; while Deborah’s rival for her husband’s affections, Annik, is a shadowy figure without substance. The band and Annik were clearly central to Ian’s life (and his death); that they were more peripheral in Deborah’s means their importance is underplayed here.

Director Anton Corbijn, best known for his iconic black and white still shots of rock musicians (U2, REM, Depeche Mode), and never one to let a splash of colour get in the way of his art, has also shot Control in grainy black and white. Self-conscious conceit or not, it works, helping to depict Manchester as the drab, decaying town it undoubtedly was in the late 1970s.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is good enough, though it won’t stretch a home theatre system, and there are plenty of extras on the DVD, including behind the scenes B-roll footage and director’s commentary. Avoid the interview with star Sam Riley. He’s superb as Curtis in the film but makes for a desperately inarticulate interviewee.

RICHARD BETTS