Control (2007) on Netflix
In Macclesfield, Ian Curtis marries Debbie and becomes the singer of a band that renames itself Joy Division. He works at an employment agency while the group begins to draw attention.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/1072,219 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ian Curtis and Debbie Woodruff marry in Macclesfield in 1975, when he is 19 and she is 18. He prefers writing poetry alone to domestic life, and after a Sex Pistols concert he volunteers to sing with Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Terry Mason, whose band becomes Warsaw and later Joy Division, with Stephen Morris on drums. A seizure on the road leads to a diagnosis of epilepsy and medication that leaves him drowsy and moody, and he writes a song about Corinne Lewis, a client at the employment agency where he works. Tony Wilson gives the band television exposure and Rob Gretton becomes their manager, and they sign to Factory Records. Debbie gives birth to their daughter, and Ian leaves his job to tour.
Cast
- Robert Shellyas Twinny
- Tanya Myersas Ian's Mother
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Control (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Control was Anton Corbijn's debut as a film director, and he paid half of the film's 4.5 million euro budget out of his own pocket.
- Anton Corbijn had been a devout Joy Division fan since the band's early days in the late 1970s; after moving to England he befriended them and shot pictures for NME, some of which appear in the film, and he directed the video for the 1988 rerelease of "Atmosphere".
- Sam Riley was relatively unknown before the film; the director first considered Cillian Murphy but changed his mind because he viewed Murphy as "a little shorter than Ian", and Jude Law was considered too before he settled on an unknown actor.
- The final scene was shot in the exact position where Ian Curtis's memorial stone stands in Macclesfield, with the camera panning out to reveal the crematorium that can be seen directly from the memorial.
- Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, two founding members of Joy Division, generally praised the film; Morris disputed its accuracy, saying none of it was true really, while Hook was hurt that the preview audience clapped at the end when "it would've been nice to have a dignified silence".
- Ian Curtis's daughter, Natalie, appeared as an extra in the crowd for the film's staging of the Derby Hall gig.
