Control

This weekend I watched the biographical film Control, made by Anton Corbijn in 2007 and posted on the blog in conjunction with our Queer studies presentations, this one particularly in relation to the Punk community. I have posted earlier about the Punk community, I find it very interesting and under noticed.

This film illustrates Ian Curtis, a young singer of Joy Division. His band was revolutionizing music and entering a movement to promote two new emerging genres into the music scene (a combination of New Wave and Goth). As a result, he suffered personal, professional and romantic troubles and died at age 23 of suicide.

The film originally portrays Ian Curtis as a mundane, sad man working for an employment agency. It is not until he meets the films heartthrob, Debbie, that he falls in love and begins to take risks and follow his dreams. As his band gains success, Ian's relationship with his young wife begins to distance itself and he begins an affair. I thought that the showing of Deborah, his confused wife trying to understand her husbands depressed soul, was particularly moving.   It is a commutation of this new success, family problems, and the emotional difficulty of being an artist which lead to his mental collapse.

The key to Control is understanding Ian's depression. He is constantly fighting epilepsy internally, and he lives in constant fear that his next seizure may be his last. He is driven to no other option than to swallow a daily cocktail of prescribed drugs with horrible effect, causing him to lose control over his own life.

This beautifully made film gives the viewer an intuitive perspective into the spirits of one of the most influential alternative bands in history. We are given exposure into the punk rock scene of the 1970's as well as a view into the troubled mind of a revolutionary artist during this time.

I recommend it to all interested in the Punk Movement as well as anyone curious about the life of a struggling artist. It creates a much more relatable reality of what a man like Ian Curtis would experience.

---Mary Lempres