Control (4 Stars)

True Stories #28

Name: Ian Curtis

Lived: 15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980

Film dates: 1973 to 1980 (death)

Film made in 2007

When I reviewed the film about Oystein Aarseth yesterday I wrote that those loved by the gods die young. It's appropriate that I watched "Control" today, a film about a singer who died even younger.

Ian Curtis was a tragic figure. He was exceptionally intelligent, but he didn't go to university. The film doesn't state the reason. Maybe his parents were too poor, although that shouldn't have been an issue, because my parents were poor as well. My university degree was financed by a government grant. Maybe his mental disposition prevented him going to university. As a teenager he was very aloof, and it was questionable whether he could have looked after himself. Maybe the book on which this film is based gives an answer.

Here's a tip for serious film fans. Pay attention to any books shown in a film. It doesn't matter whether someone's reading a book or there are just books as props in a bookcase. Directors make deliberate choices what books to show in a film, and they're always significant. In "Control" we're shown the books on Ian Curtis' shelf. It's astounding reading material for a 16-year-old. The books show the depth of his intellect.

Note: Allen Ginsberg's name is spelt wrong. It was a blunder when creating an artificial prop for the shelf. I also owned the book "Howl and other poems", and it was a very thin book. If the real book had been used in the film, the spine would have been too thin to read the title, so a fake book was created for the scene, and they slipped up.

Ian might not have gone to university, but he remained an avid reader as he grew older. We see him reading books in later scenes. He got married to Debbie Woodruff at the age of 19, which blocked any possibility of beginning higher education later in his life.

After seeing the Sex Pistols in concert, Ian met three other teenagers who'd formed a band and were looking for a singer. He joined the band, Joy Division, and wrote all of their songs. Ian Curtis was a true poet, one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century. It's usual to compare him with Jim Morrison, especially because of the similarity of their voices, but Ian's songs were darker and more depressing than Jim's. In the film he says that Joy Division's songs aren't meant to be beautiful, they're meant to make people depressed.

Depression is what characterised Ian's life. He had little interaction with the other band members. He was on a completely different level. In later years they said that literary critics explained his songs, and they'd never know what they were singing about. On stage Ian went into a trance, looking neither at the audience nor the other band members. He had a unique stage antic in which he walked or even ran on the spot, pushing his body to the point of exhaustion. He gave everything on stage, more than he had to give.

Ian Curtis suffered from epilepsy. Despite heavy medication, he was unable to keep it under control. He even had fits on stage. It was common for the rest of the band to continue playing while he was carried out, pretending it was part of the show.

Joy Division toured Britain, and then the rest of Europe, but the band remained poor. They hardly earned enough to cover their expenses. That put a great strain on Debbie, who needed to work to support their family, including their new-born baby girl.

That leads to the most controversial element in the film. The film shows him having an affair with the Belgian embassy employee Annik Honoré. It's doubtful that this ever happened. "Control" is based on a book written by Ian's wife Debbie. She wrote a lot about the affair in the book, but Annik herself denies there was ever an affair. When Debbie wrote the book in 1995, Annik shrugged it off as fantasy, but after the film was made she couldn't remain silent any more. In the book Debbie wrote that Annik rang their house every day to speak to Ian. Annik claims that she never rang their house, not once, but Debbie rang her every day, yelling at her to leave her husband alone. Annik often accompanied Joy Division on tours, but she says there was never a romantic involvement with Ian. She says that they used to talk for hours. Ian complained to Annik that Debbie couldn't understand him, and Annik was the only one he could talk to. Judging by what she said, it sounds like Annik wasn't a lover, she was a good friend. The other band members could neither verify nor deny an affair. They knew that Ian and Annik spent time together, but they didn't ask what they were doing.

Speaking from my own personal experience, many women are like Debbie, especially women who don't have an intellectual connection with their husband. Debbie had no idea what was going on in Ian's head, so she assumed that if he was with another woman it must have been a love affair. That's sad. Adding a love affair to the film makes it a good story, but it doesn't mean it's true.

In the end, Debbie threw him out of their house. Ian attempted to make up with her, but she rejected him. The following morning he hanged himself, and he was dead at the age of 23. It's a morbid fact that Ian's suicide boosted the sales of Joy Division's two albums. Posthumously he's been recognised as a great singer and an outstanding poet.

Maybe Ian Curtis and Annik Honoré were never lovers, but a new romance blossomed between the actors. Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara met for the first time while making "Control". They married two years later and are still together today.

Success Rate:  - 0.6

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Byzantium (4 Stars)

So what do you do if you want to make a good movie?

1. Cast Gemma Arterton.
2. Cast Saoirse Ronan.
3. Make them both vampires.

That might sound like I'm being flippant, but it's true. If you fulfil all three of those conditions you'll have a great movie, and "Byzantium" is no exception.

This is a powerful gothic horror tale, in essence and in tone. Mother and daughter, Clara and Eleanor Webb, are living in South England. I'm not sure where they're based at the beginning of the film, but after 15 minutes they move to Hastings. It's a slightly different take on vampire lore. Only men are allowed to become vampires, but Clara and Eleanor have tricked their way into vampirism, and now they're being hunted by male vampires who want to kill them. They're forced to leave their first apartment when they're discovered.

In Hastings Clara meets a man who's just inherited a seaside hotel. He's unable to run it successfully, so she suggests turning it into a brothel. The hotel is called Byzantium, in case you were wondering about the film's title.

The men aren't far behind. They still want to punish Clara and Eleanor for no other reason than they're female. It might be a film about vampires, but it could be applied to many other parts of life.

Clara had a baby after being raped as a teenager. She became a prostitute to support herself and gave Eleanor to a Catholic orphanage. In later years Clara became a vampire, so she took Eleanor out of the orphanage and gave her the same gift of vampirism. That was 200 years ago. Ever since then they've been in hiding. Clara works as a prostitute to make money, while Eleanor is sent to school. Eleanor was 16 when she became a vampire, and as far as her mother's concerned she's still 16.

Morally speaking, they're very different women. It's not just Clara's job, she's a liar by nature. She says that lies are necessary to survive, but that's just an excuse. She can't stop herself lying, not even when it's answering simple questions like "What's your name?" Eleanor's religious upbringing makes it difficult for her to lie. She's desperate to tell people her life story, so she writes it in a book, then screws up the pages and throws them out of the window. Some pages are found and read, others are lost forever, but nobody knows who wrote them.

It's only when Eleanor falls in love with a sickly young boy that she finds the courage to reveal herself. She writes her life story for an essay, telling her teachers it's the truth. They don't believe her, but they investigate her family circumstances and are shocked when they find her living in a brothel. Clara is reported to the police, which alerts the male vampires.

This is a powerful film, spoilt only by the unorthodox way it presents of a person becoming a vampire. You'll know what I mean when you see it.

Success Rate:  - 10.5

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Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil (3 Stars)

This is a sequel to the 2014 film "Maleficent". The first film was based loosely on the fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty". This film follows the further adventures of Aurora, the now awoken sleeping beauty, when she wishes to get married. She needs to introduce her stepmother, the witch Maleficent, to her bridegroom's parents, the King and Queen of Ulstead.

The film presents Maleficent in a different light to the first film. In the first film she was evil, but with some good qualities that shone through. In the second film she's a good person, with some evil qualities that she can't quite suppress.

Overall, the film isn't up to the quality of the first film. It's entertaining, but not a film I'd feel inclined to watch a second time. I prefer Angelina Jolie when she's evil. She does it so well!

Free Fire (5 Stars)

I missed this film when it was in the cinema last year. One of my friends – a friend whose opinion I value – told me it was one of the best films of the year, so I bought it last week. Wow! I see what he means. It would probably have made it into my top ten film list for 2017 if I'd seen it.

The film takes place in real time, i.e. the 87 minutes of the film run without interruption. There aren't many films like that. "Phone Booth" is another example.

Four IRA members meet with illicit gun salesmen in an abandoned factory in Boston. Despite mutual mistrust the deal is almost completed, when two of the trading partners recognise one another. The previous evening one of the Irishmen had hit the 17-year-old cousin of one of the gun runners over the head with a bottle, scarring her for life. Despite pleas to remain businesslike the two start shooting at one another, leading to an all out war between the two groups.

There are obvious similarities with "Reservoir Dogs". The two films are close enough to look similar, but not close enough for "Free Fire" to be accused of plagiarism. The films are equally claustrophobic, but "Free Fire" is more violent, elevating the carnage to a level of surreal beauty.

After seeing it today I already feel the need to watch it again. Soon.

Success Rate:  - 1.8

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On The Road (3½ Stars)

I've noticed something over the last few years. It might have been happening longer, but it's only become apparent to me in the last five years. It's become customary for films to have the logos, usually animated, of several different studios shown at the beginning of films. This is in contrast to the good old days when only one film studio logo was shown. My assumption is that the logos advertise all the studios that contributed to the financing of a film. The smaller a film is, the more studios are displayed. For instance, "On the Road" begins with the following six logos.

Lionsgate, for 21 seconds.

Icon, for 13 seconds.

Sundance, for 8 seconds.

IFC, for 7 seconds

MK2, for 11 seconds.

Film 4, for 11 seconds.

That's a total of 71 seconds, more than a minute, that the viewer is forced to sit through the opening animated logos. I'm curious whether the length of the logos has any relationship to the percentage of the cash that each studio provided.

The book "On the Road", written by Jack Kerouac in 1957, is recognised as one of the most significant novels of the 20th Century. Considering its importance, it's amazing that the film was a failure at the box office, despite its abundance of famous actors. It tells the story of Jack Kerouac's friendship with the con man and thief Neal Cassady from 1947 to 1950. In the book the characters are given fictional names, although it's obvious who is referred to. Sal Paradise is Jack Kerouac, Dean Moriarty is Neal Cassady, Carlo Marx is Allen Ginsberg, Old Bull Lee is William Burroughs, etc.

The film shows Jack and Neal travelling across America on various occasions, usually accompanied by other friends or relatives. The main cities they visit are New York (Jack's home), San Francisco (Neal's home) and Denver (the city where Neal's father lived).

If the book has a message, it's lost in the film. I can only guess what Jack Kerouac was trying to tell his readers. Jack portrays himself as relatively reserved, carried along by the youth movement of the post-war generation rather than being a part of it. Neal Cassady is a reckless, carefree person. He's introduced as the man who stole 500 cars, which immediately makes him a hero among the New York anarchists. He's sexually promiscuous, despite his attempts to be faithful to his second wife, but he's sad to the core. His life is empty. In the end we see him clinging to Jack to find happiness, but Jack rejects him.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2 Stars)

When a film has a title like this it just has to be seen, doesn't it?

I read Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice" when I was a teenager. It's been adapted as a film several times, but I've never watched any of the film versions, so I can barely remember the story. I just recall that it was about the genteel like of the English nobility. Supposedly the plot of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" closely follows Jane Austen's novel, apart from zombies being added to the story.

The Bennet family has five daughters that the parents want to marry into good families. Any prospective suitors must be handsome, well-mannered and rich. The Bennet sisters are certainly ideal partners for any man. All five have been trained as zombie hunters. The oldest daughter, Elisabeth, was trained in China, while the other four were trained in Japan. There seems to be some prejudice against Chinese fighting arts, but this isn't fully explained.

Several men arrive in the area where the sisters live and vie for their affections. Colonel Darcy is arrogant, but a highly skilled zombie hunter. Parson Collins is a newly appointed priest. Mr. Bingley is the owner of a nearby mansion. Mr. Wickham is a soldier. The men have secrets in their past that disguise their true motives.

The film's premise is its greatest weakness. The good manners and the understated passions of the main characters slow the film's action to a crawl. If the film had departed further from the style of the original novel it would have been more exciting. Instead of this I found the film's characters annoying, especially the men. The only thing I found positive was the performance of Matt Smith as Parson Collins. His hilariously awkward mannerisms show that he has the talent to become a great comedy actor.

Suite Francaise (3¾ Stars)

The film takes place in a village called Bussy, 20 miles from Paris, in 1940. I didn't realise until the end of the film that it's a true story. It was written shortly after the events by a French Jewess who lived in the village after fleeing from Paris, but it wasn't published until 60 years later when her daughter finally discovered what was contained in her mother's notebook.

The main character is Lucille Angellier (Michelle Williams), who lives in a large mansion in Bussy with her mother-in-law, a wealthy land-owner referred to only as Madame Angellier. Her husband has left to fight against the Germans, but when Germany conquers Paris in June 1940 she begins to despair that he's still alive. At first the war seems far away, but Bussy is overrun by a stream of refugees from Paris, and shortly afterwards a German regiment is posted in the village. Each household has to put up a German soldier, and as the owner of the largest house Madame Angellier is assigned the highest ranking German office, Lieutenant Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts).

The Germans are the enemies, and Lucille expects to have an inhuman monster living in her house. She's surprised when she meets a highly sensitive man who spends the evenings sitting at her piano composing a piece of music that he calls the "Suite Francaise". A romance develops between the two.

The film is a very honest portrayal of the situation during the German occupation of France. It's usual for the opposing sides in a war to demonise one another, but the fact is that the soldiers who fight for a country are just normal men who have more in common with the enemy soldiers than they do with their warmongering leaders. This is especially the case if the soldiers have been conscripted. While I lived in Germany I had a friend whose father had been part of the occupying army in France. His father was a religious man, and while in France he had visited French churches, sitting side by side with the enemy. War is something that divides people who would otherwise have been friends.

I enjoy films based on true stories, even if they lack the tidy resolution of purely fictional films. Real life never ties up loose ends, and there's rarely a happy ending. My only real criticism of the film is that the romance isn't as tender as the picture above suggests. When Lucille and Bruno are together they seem to be driven by lust rather than love. That clashes with the love of classical music that first draws them together. This must have been an interpretation of the film's screenwriters, because I doubt that the authoress knew the couple well enough to know that when in private they were tearing one another's clothes off to have a hasty fumble.

My praise goes out to Sam Riley, who is barely recognizable as the French farmer Benoit. His wife Alexandra Maria Lara plays a small role as a Jewish refugee, probably the authoress herself. Tom Schilling ably portrays the swaggering German lieutenant Kurt Bonnet. He's fast developing into one of Germany's top actors. Heino Ferch, probably my favourite German actor, plays a small role as the commander of the troops stationed in Bussy. Matthias Schoenaerts is a Belgian actor who is currently making a breakthrough into the American market, and he certainly has the talent to go all the way to the top. But all the other actors are eclipsed by Michelle Williams. After all these years I still associate her with the TV series "Dawson's Creek", which was her first big role at the age of 18. I never realised that she would develop into such a competent actress. She has a cool composure that makes her able to express emotions with the slightest change of facial expressions.

Control (4½ Stars)

Today was the second time I watched this film about the life of Ian Curtis. The second time round it was far more moving. I felt his pain. I compared the story with my own life. Ian married Debbie Woodruff when he was only 19. In the film he calls it a mistake, but I doubt that he ever really said it. The problem is that the film is based on a book written by his widow 15 years after his death. She never understood him. I strongly suspect that she put words into his mouth that he never spoke. I'm not saying that she was lying. I see something similar in my own life. My ex-wife says things about me which are untrue, but it's how she remembers the past. When we were together she suspected me of doing or saying things in secret, and now, years later, she's convinced herself that they really happened.

The main thing in the film that I can't take at face value is Ian's affair with Annik Honore. In recent interviews Annik has denied that she ever had an affair with Ian. I believe her. What reason would she have to lie about it, 30 years after his death? In my opinion, what happened was that Annik was a close friend and companion for Ian. He couldn't talk to Debbie, but Annik understood him. As far as Debbie was concerned there must have been a sexual relationship between them. Debbie had no understanding for her husband's real needs, which involved intellectually stimulating conversation.

The same is true of my wife. When we were married she repeatedly accused me of having a lover. She used to search my briefcase looking for telephone numbers. Just like Ian, I knew a girl that I used to talk to. She worked in a shop, and I spoke to her in the shop. I never visited her at home. I never kissed her, the most that ever happened were friendly hugs. But if you asked my wife today she would say that I was unfaithful to her for years.

I'm currently writing my life story. Actually, it's on hold. I haven't written anything for the last three months, but I intend to finish it soon. It would be interesting if my wife wrote her life story as well. I'm sure that she would describe our marriage so differently that readers would think it's a different couple. It's not just the lover yes-or-no issue, her memories of our time together are distorted in many other ways. It's tragic. She hardly knew me when we were together, and now that we've been apart for years she knows me even less.

Here are Ian and Annik. Just talking. Ironically, a lot more than talking was happening off camera. The actors Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara met for the first time when making this film. They fell in love and married two years later.

Byzantium (4¼ Stars)

Only those prepared to die will find eternal life.

This is yet another rewriting of vampire mythology. How many different alternatives can people come up with? In this film vampires can walk in sunlight, although they prefer the dark. They can't enter a home unless invited. They can only be killed by being beheaded. That's pretty standard stuff. But it gets wild when it comes to becoming a vampire. To become a vampire you have to carry a sacred box into a shrine on an uninhabited island off the coast of England. When you're there your double drinks your blood, and you emerge as a vampire. That's new. Apart from this, in the Byzantium Universe only male vampires are allowed. Two women, a mother and daughter, have become vampires by stealing the box, so the males are hunting them.

Despite the erratic reinventing of vampires, this is a fascinating, typically British vampire film. Clara and Eleanor Webb, played by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan, are a mother and daughter who are about 200 years old. Since they both look young, they pretend to be sisters. Clara earns her money from prostitution, occasionally killing her customers if she thinks they're carrying enough money with them. Eleanor was only 16 when she became a vampire, so Clara still thinks of her as a child and expects her to remain pure.

The two vampires are always on the move, running as soon as they get into any trouble. They move to North Haven, a fictional English coastal town. Clara takes over a hotel, the Byzantium Hotel, and turns it into a brothel, while Eleanor goes to school. But they haven't settled down long before they start killing people again. How long can they stay before they're noticed?

Gemma Arterton has a haunting beauty in all her films, but in "Byzantium" it's especially appropriate. Her appearance is a fascinating mix of a sex siren and the girl next door. Saoirse Ronan is also beautiful, although she dresses down to look plain in this film. I've always wondered how to pronounce her name, and after listening to the interviews in the Blu-ray extra features I still don't know. Sam Riley and Gemma say her name differently, so I don't know which one of them is right. Or maybe they're both wrong.

Maleficent (4 Stars)

This is a film claiming to tell the truth behind the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", written by Charles Perrault in the 17th Century and later retold by the Brothers Grimm. It would be more accurate to say that it tells the truth that was hidden behind the lies in the 1959 Walt Disney film with the same name. What I mean is, the 1959 film changed a lot of the details of the fairy tale. In particular, that film was the first time the evil fairy was named Maleficent. In turn, children's books written in the last 50 years have told the tale based on the film, not on the older stories. I think it would be fair to say that most people today know the Walt Disney version of the story.

I would rather not say too much about the new truths revealed by the film, since it's still in the cinemas, and that would spoil it for my readers who haven't seen it yet. It's a beautiful story of myth and magic, which I can strongly recommend. I was pleasantly surprised that the 3D effects looked so good. Angelina Jolie looks magnificent when she flies through the sky with her brown wings.

Control (4½ Stars)

It all used to be so simple, everything.
Now everyone hates me.
I've made everyone hate me.
Even the people who love me hate me.

This is the true story of Ian Curtis, the singer of the band Joy Division, from 1973 to 1980. During his short life he achieved only moderate success, and he was almost penniless at the time of his death. A few years later people looked back at him, and he's now recognised as one of the best English songwriters ever. Many people, myself included, regard him as the very best. His vocal style makes people compare him with Jim Morrison, but Ian's song texts are darker and more morbid. Maybe Jim reached that level in songs like "The End", but for Ian the mood was constant.

Originally Ian was only a poet, but at a Sex Pistols concert in 1978 he met three musicians who were looking for a singer for their band. After joining them he became solely responsible for the lyrics. The band's original name was Warsaw, but after a few months they changed it to Joy Division.

Ian married at the age of 19. He thought he was in love, but he soon realised it was a mistake. Two years later he met and fell in love with Annik Honore, a Belgian embassy worker. During the last two years of his life he became increasingly aloof. He isolated himself not only from his wife, but also from the other band members. On stage he entered a trance-like state, staring upwards and dancing awkwardly.

On May 18th 1980, the day before Joy Division was due to fly to America for their first American tour, Ian watched "Stroszek" (a film about a foreigner in America), listened to Iggy Pop's album "The Idiot", then hanged himself. He was 23.

Ian Curtis is played by Sam Riley, an English actor/singer who looks and sounds uncannily like Ian Curtis. He captures Ian's mannerisms perfectly in the stage performances. While watching I was caught up in Ian's isolation and couldn't help suffering with him. The film's dismal atmosphere is intensified by being filmed in black and white. I've deducted half a star because the film fails to show Ian's genius.

Here are the lyrics to Joy Division's best known song, written by Ian Curtis.

She's Lost Control

Confusion in her eyes that says it all,
She's lost control.
And she's clinging to the nearest passer by,
She's lost control.
And she gave away the secrets of her past,
And said, "I've lost control again",
And of a voice that told her when and where to act
She said, "I've lost control again".

And she turned around and took me by the hand
And said, "I've lost control again",
And how I'll never know just why or understand,
She said, "I've lost control again",
And she screamed out kicking on her side
And said, "I've lost control again",
And seized up on the floor, I thought she'd die,
She said, "I've lost control".

She's lost control again.
She's lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.

Well I had to phone her friend to state my case
And say, she's lost control again,
And she showed up all the errors and mistakes,
And said, "I've lost control again",
But she expressed herself in many different ways,
Until she lost control again,
And walked upon the edge of no escape,
And laughed, "I've lost control".

She's lost control again.
She's lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.

Franklyn (3½ Stars)

Loss. Separation. Reunion.