Control

Melancholy Music never really featured in my teenage years. I was moody at times for sure, but had non of the deep teenage angst that afflicts most young people. In fact the saying "There is less to him that meets the eye", could have been written about me!, as when my peers were aggressively enjoying the likes of The Sex pistols and and Buzzcocks, I was dreaming of the luxury Liner the S.S.Poseidon, and enjoying Mario Puzo's Godfather II!
Friend Hazel on the other hand, spent hours lying in darkened rooms listening to Joy Division, so she was so excited at the biog film Control (2007) which had a special showing at Llandudno tonight. The film is a sombre and rather thin profile of Ian Curtis, the "enigmatic" singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23. Now the director Anton Corbijn, must have been a big fan of the group, as you could almost taste his recreation of 1978, but as for exploring the singer's real personality and motivations, the film lacked any real depth of characterization. Mind you, Sam Riley was fairly impressive as the immature and complicated Curtis and Samantha Morton as his mousy wife, is always worth the price of a cinema ticket.
Shot impressively in black and white by Martin Ruhe, the whole thing was depressingly quite beautiful.