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While I admittedly know very little about the ins and outs of the history of modern music, one thing that I do know is that the 80s rock/new wave/techno behemoth New Order was once known as Joy Division. In 1976 in the sleepy industrial city of Manchester, England, four men brought a new sound that, to this day, is still replicated by scores of 21st century bands. The film “Control” chronicles the short years over which Joy Division rose to fame amidst the obscurity that was frontman Ian Curtis’s life.

Photo: Momentum/The Weinstein Company

Based on the memoir Touching From A Distance, penned by Curtis’s wife Deborah Curtis, the audience is presented with a picture of a young man whose aspirtations of singing on stage came from teenage years filled with David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” and the Sex Pistols. At a very young age, Ian Curtis meets Debbie, the woman who’s dating his best friend but manages to fall in love with Ian nonetheless. In the years after their teenage marriage, everything else seems to happen so quickly, from finding a home, having a baby, starting a band, signing to a label, Ian’s love affair with a young Belgian woman named Annik and a diagnosis of epilepsy.

Soon it becomes very apparent where the film gets its name from, as control is something Curtis quickly loses sight of. At the age of 23 and on the eve of Joy Division’s first American tour, Ian Curtis committed suicide. “Control” is a poignant picture, filled with moments that are both genuine and heartwrenching. To be quite honest, some of what I saw was quite difficult to absorb, particularly the duality of Curtis’s life.

“Control” was simply a black and white story with none of the glitz or glamour normally seen in rock movies. It’s been several years since I’ve seen a British film that was so rich in account while also vacant in terms of what I was presented with visually. I believe that the last film to have this kind of cinematic impact on me was 1996’s “Trainspotting.” Another crown in the jewel of the movie is that, in all scenes in which Joy Division plays live, the actors themselves actually performed the tracks.

“Control” has been labelled as the “the coolest British movie of 2007,” and it comes to me as no surprise why.

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