So we just made sure we got it right the other bits, with Ian, there are no references to so that’s all about talking to people and getting it right. And that way I knew I would satisfy Joy Division fans who are anal about this sort of thing. The thing is I knew I wanted to be correct, from my perspective, because I’d seen Joy Division live, and there are also visual references to their performances, so you knew that you could really work on it to get this correct. RT: How did you prepare - or did you prepare at all - for backlash from Joy Division fans?ĪC: No, not really.
But I was a photographer about seven years before I met Joy Division, so it was not the first thing that I did but it was the first thing I did when I moved to England. And I met up with them within two weeks of moving to England, and I did this picture that became later well known. I thought they were an amazing band, that’s why I moved from Holland to England. Rotten Tomatoes: How did you first meet Ian Curtis and Joy Division?Īnton Corbijn: Well, I was a photographer and I loved their music. Control deservingly nabbed directorial and acting honors at the Cannes and Edinburgh film festivals, and opens in limited release this week. Likewise, the stars seem to have aligned when it comes to Control‘s stirring central performance by newcomer Sam Riley, whose spot-on resemblance to Curtis in both image and sound lend Corbijn’s film an element of painful authenticity. While known to use monochrome palettes in much of his still work, Corbijn says the cinematic choice simply made sense, as his recollections of Joy Division (and post-punk journalism in the late 1970s) are all black and white.
The result is a true passion project, crafted with a photographer’s eye in starkly beautiful black and white shades. When Corbijn’s attention turned to cinema, he initially turned down the chance to make Control - which is based on the memoir Touching from a Distance, by Ian’s widow Deborah Curtis - but came back to the film after realizing that his own emotional attachment to the story lingered, decades later. tour.Īfter Curtis’ death, Joy Division became New Order, and Corbijn went on to an acclaimed career in photography and directing music videos (including Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” Henry Rollins’ “Liar,” and Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”). A subsequent photo shoot in a London subway station became one of the most iconic photos of the group, whose deep, melancholy music became more notorious when lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide on the eve of the band’s first U.S. One such band was the post-punk outfit Joy Division, who Corbijn met within two weeks of his arrival.
Anton Corbijn was a 24-year-old professional photographer when he decided to move from his native Holland to England, partly to meet and shoot some of his favorite musicians.