australian rozie

Control - Celebrated photographer and music video artist Anton Corbijn’s highly anticipated biopic about the late Ian Curtis, the enigmatic lead singer of iconic English post-punk band Joy Division, was selected to open Directors Fortnight at Cannes this year.
I was really looking forward to this one and luckily I am a-n-a-l and bought my tickets early because all the sessions for Control have sold out. Someone from the film festival announced that they had received the film reels direct from it’s premiere at Cannes but unfortunately one of the reels (number 3 of 4) was missing!!! This caused a bit of grief in the audience until she said that they had managed to get a digital version of the missing reel. There was a change of screen format during the screening but it didn’t really matter as they wouldn’t have been able to show the movie without it. All those old school indie trainspotters would have started a riot!

Everyone knows what happens at the end (except one girl who was bawling at the end, maybe she didn’t know what happened to him - what a surprise that would have been), so it made it a bit tense waiting for Ian Curtis to kill himself. Sam Riley who plays Ian Curtis does a great job (he is also very hot), though not as intense as Sean Harris‘ Curtis in 24 Hour Party People. This compelled me to watch a bit of 24 Hour Party People as soon as I got home. It was interesting to compare the same characters played by different actors. I have to admit that I like New Order much better than Joy Division, but it was a great story and beautifully shot in black & white.