DVD Review: Control (Directors Suite)

March 26, 2008 at 1:10 am (Entertainment, Movies, Music)

Last year I saw the film ‘Control’ at the Brisbane International Film Festival. I even wrote a review on the movie, having enjoyed it immensely.

I wrote back then that I’d definitely add this movie to my collection, and true to my word, it’s now taken a spot on the shelf.

So, is it worth shelling out the money?

Short answer: Hell yeah!

Long answer… keep reading.

Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way first:

Control (Directors Suite)

Title: Control (Directors Suite)
Year: 2007
Director: Anton Corbijn
Studio: Becker Films, Claraflora, EM Media, NorthSee Limited, Three Dogs and a Pony, Warner Music
Distributed by: Madman Films (in conjunction with Dendy Films)
Number of Discs: 1
Disc Format: DVD-9 dual layer, single sided.
Feature Length: 119 mins
Extras Length: 73 mins
Video Format: PAL, colour
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic widescreen 16:9
Soundtrack: English, Dolby Digital, 2.0 Stereo
Region: 4

Special Features: Interviews, Making of, Commentary, Extended Performances, B-Roll Footage, Behind the Scenes/B-Roll Footage, Original Theatrical Trailers

Released: 18th March 2008

I can wax poetic about Control as a masterpiece of film making, a work of art, a testament to the genius that is Joy Division and the legacy that remains… but I won’t. It’s true, though, that this film is a brilliant piece of cinematography, but the brilliance comes from the efforts of director Anton Corbijn… and he builds on a solid foundation of the rise and tragic end of Ian Curtis as detailed in Deborah Curtis’ book, Touching from a Distance.

“No language, just sound, is all we need know
To synchronise love to the beat of the show”
- Transmission

This DVD will appeal to both fans of Corbijn’s work and fans of Joy Division. The two elements represented a perfect union, with some of the most iconic images of the band photographed mere weeks before Curtis’ suicide.

JD by Anton Corbijn

Shot in black and white and on location in many of the same places that the events shown took place (including most notably, the house that Ian Curtis lived in on Barton Street in Macclesfield), Control shows how the medium of film and the format used are as much an important part of the art as the script or the soundtrack or the actors. This is never more obvious than when you watch the extras.

First off, the ‘B-reel Footage’ is all in colour, and when you see this footage in comparison to the final cut, it lacks the impact of the black and white. Part of me says that this is more resonant for Joy Division fans, as most of the original imagery is in black and white and as such has become the norm for the band. Ironically, the film was shot in colour and converted, as black and white film looks far too grainy, even in 35mm. The starkness of the black and white cinematography is an apt companion to the music that Joy Division created.

“But if you could just see the beauty
These things I could never describe
These pleasures a wayward distraction
This is my one lucky prize”
- Isolation

The music is another aspect of the extras that make this DVD a great buy. The musical back catalogue of Joy Division, whilst limited, has remarkable depth and diversity. Of course, limiting the soundtrack to just Joy Division would be incredibly short sighted given their many influences. Sadly, of the music that makes the movie so special, only three of the performances from the actors make it to the extras ‘Extended Performances’ section.

Why sadly? Because even though the actors that play the roles of the members of Joy Division are not trained musicians, they each took up the challenge and learned how to play all the performances in the film, in part or in entirety. Included in this DVD’s extras are three of those used in part, at various stages of the story. Each performance is true to both the original style and the capacity of the musicians, as each was still learning in many ways. They are, however, incredibly powerful and their inclusion on the disc is a real treat.

“Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders
Here are the young men, well where have they been?”
- Decades

Interestingly, the interviews section comes off as a little ambiguous. For Sam Riley (who played Ian Curtis), the interview is very reserved and measured, almost as a reflection of the character he is playing. For Joe Anderson (Peter Hook), Harry Treadaway (Stephen Morris) and James Anthony Pearson (Bernard Albrecht/Sumner), the ambiguity is more apparent as each of them slips in and out of character when they answer each of the questions. The interviews are quite interesting and offer additional insight into the characters as well as the story itself.

The greatest insight, however, is offered up in the directors commentary. Anton Corbijn, having known the band and it’s frontman, Ian Curtis, during the time that is portrayed in the film, offers up some marvelous trinkets to fans in the form of anecdotes and information that only someone who’d known the people involved could provide.

“This is why events unnerve me
They find it all, a different story“
- Ceremony

And in a comment that can only serve to tease the fans out there, Corbijn mentions that the principal photography ran for three hours, requiring entire scenes to be cut in order to get the running time down to two hours. A part of me likes to think that somewhere down the track another release of this movie will include these scenes, perhaps on BluRay.

The transfer to DVD is exceptional, with all the subtleties and nuances of the film perfectly represented. From the titles, that flicker in and out to represent the epilepsy that plagued Curtis, to the end credits that scroll by to The Killers version of ‘Shadowplay’, representing the ongoing influence and legacy left by the music, all the emotions that seeing this movie on the big screen evoked are still present.

“I didn’t make the film as an investment, to earn money. I wanted to make a film as an artist”
- Anton Corbijn

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