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 control interview
Unknown pleasures. Anton Corbijn and Joy Division singer Ian Curtis will be forever linked. Corbijn - hitherto best known as a photographer, album designer and music video director - first rose to prominence taking photos for music magazines such as NME and Melody Maker. One of the first pictures he took after coming to England in 1979 from his native Netherlands, and setting up home in a squat, was of Joy Division. Alas, a few short months after the picture was taken Ian Curtis committed suicide, aged 23.  Corbijn’s photographic trademark was to shoot his subjects in raw, real-life situations in black and white. And now the 52 year-old, venturing into feature film directing for the first time, has put the short life of Ian Curtis on a movie reel, in monochrome of course. Joy Division, he says, changed his life: “I moved to England in late October 1979 and within 14 days I had met Joy Division and photographed them. The picture became very famous, but at the time no one wanted it. The band liked it very much, though, and they used a shot for a limited-edition release in Belgium. Then they asked me to come to Manchester for a day to hang out with them in April 1980 and we did the video for Love Will Tear Us Apart. I took another picture of them. Then Ian committed suicide and that picture was put on the cover of NME.”  Corbijn is vehement, though, that Control is not about Joy Division but Ian Curtis who, prior to his suicide, was struggling to cope with the demands of the two women in his life, his wife Deborah and mistress Annick Honoré, fatherhood, the growing acclaim for his band, and epilepsy. Corbijn is even mentioned in Deborah Curtis’ book, Touching From A Distance, from which the film has taken many tales. “But the book is her story and I wanted to make a film that told Ian’s story,” he says. “So her book is only part of it. We talked to Annick Honoré, members of New Order and Factory record label owner Tony Wilson. Deborah came three times to the set. I think she realised that I was making an honest film and a proper film, and of course she had Samantha Morton playing her, so there was no way she could complain. Samantha is one of the best actors of her generation.” And Control is one of the best British films for many a year.
Kaleem Aftab
Control, on general release 05 October 07.
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