Control, please.

"I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand, could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man? These sensations barely interest me for another day, I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away. " Ian Curtis.

And continuing with my obsession for Joy Division, yesterday I went to a 60’s inspired-very cool pub called Four Seasons, since Ian’s Curtis biopic was going to be shown there. I was very excited when I sat down with a cold beer and the lights turned off. The movie was entirely recorded black and white and in English, of course. I fell completely in love with the film, I really enjoyed it but I definitely can’t have an objective position about the film because I just love the band, Ian and anything related to Joy Division just amazes me. I still can’t understand how we were only four people at the bar watching the film. Well, actually it was only me watching technically the film because two of the four people were a couple and they were all the time smooching each other and the other person was smoking and drinking non-stop and I don’t really think that he was actually interested in the movie. Anyway, here it is some information about Ian Curtis’ biopic.

The film is directed by photographer and director of music videos and films Anton Corbijn, who has made the video for the song Atmosphere when Factory released in 1988 the compilation "Substance", a nice work in black and white.


The chosen one to play Ian Curtis has been the newcomer Sam Riley, the singer of the band 10 000 Things, replacing candidates such as Jude Law.
The role of the singer's wife is played by Samantha Morton and the band New Order is on the soundtrack reinterpreting tracks from Joy Division.
The film is expected to capture the spirit of the band, dense and tortured, and the singer’s suicide in 1980, turned their discography into one of the most important not only in the rock music but also in the music in general.

The funny thing is that the film is inspired by the memories of Ian’s widow (with whom he had a daughter) Deborah Curtis. The book name is “Touching From a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division “and it was published by Faber in 1995. Is it said that the memories often borders on sensationalism more than highlights the romantic figure of the singer.


The wife recalled anecdotes and passages of her husband’s life which are a bit demystifying and the photos of the book (wedding, life in common, walks on the beach, etc.) bring a more everyday Ian Curtis, who used to go shopping and get drunk in the pub, something so far away from the myth.

His epilepsy, his physical problems and his ungainly figure contributed to create a tortured figure (remember his standard "Love will tear us apart") that also comes off badly in Michael Winterbottom's film "24 Hour Party People" about Tony Wilson, the Factory label and the independent music from Manchester in the early eighties.


It is also remarkable how the rest of the group members formed New Order, which became one referee of the dance music of the eighties. In their statements, they remember Ian Curtis as one more in the band but yes, with a tendency to depression and burdened with emotional problems.

But twenty-five years later, Joy Division remains one of the great icons of independent music and its influence does not stop and hopefully never will.

"Nothing seems real anymore. Even the flames from the fire seem to beckon to me, drawing me into some great past life buried somewhere deep in my subconscious, if only I could find the key...if only...if only. Ever since my illness, my condition, I've been trying to find some logical way of passing my time, of justifying a means to an end. " Ian Curtis.