This week (Oct 10) is the Stateside opening (in select US cities) of the film "Control" - the biopic about Joy Division's tragic lead singer Ian Curtis (played by Sam Riley) who committed suicide in 1980 at age 23 - and even though I've read various reviews of the movie that range from good to bad and mediocre I know I will definitely be going to see this film which is directed by Anton Corbijn (shot in black in white - similar to his infamous photography of Joy Division, U2 etc.) and based on the book "Touching From a Distance" by the film subject's widow Deborah Curtis.  Some reviewers warn Joy Division fans that is not really a story of the ever influential band but rather a dramatic love story - a tragic tale of this troubled young artist who liked Bowie, cigarettes, got famous at an early age, married too young (19) and then fell in love with another, suffered from deptression and anxiety, and on top of all this had epilepsy for which he had to take pills that had negative side-effects 

Additionally fans fiending for original Joy Division music should know that the music is not by the band itself but rather the actors playing the band  in the movie- all with the exception of a Joy Division cover by the Killers over closing credits. On the topic of having the actors learn the music of Joy Division and play it in the film director Anton Corbijn (who is interviewed on Dutch TV below) said in one magazine interview that it would be more authentic to have the actors learn to play the songs and perform them in the movie, noting that Joy Division were not really that advanced as musicians anyways so it wasn't impossible to have the actors learn the musical parts. It might have been had it been say a film about Pink Floyd, he said. For more information on the film go the official website. And if you go check it out in theaters please come back here to this AMOEBLOG and post your review in the COMMENTS box. Thanks!