Control Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Control Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 28, 2011

Winner of Camera d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Anton Corbijn's "Control" (2007) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Momentum Pictures. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; audio commentary with director Anton Corbijn; standard making of featurette; extended live concert performances from the film; and a music video for Joy Division's Atmosphere. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Lovers

Ian Curtis (Sam Riley, Brighton Rock), the lead singer of Joy Division, lived in two very different worlds. In the first, he was loved by two beautiful women, Debbie (Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar) and Annik (Alexandra Maria Lara, The Tunnel, Downfall). He married Debbie but felt a lot more comfortable with Annik. He tried being honest with both and eventually his life started spinning out of control.

In the second, Curtis suffered a lot. Right around the time when Joy Division started gathering momentum, he was diagnosed with epilepsy, which he treated with various drugs whose side effects were unpredictable. Curtis was constantly depressed and often in pain. When it became obvious that the drugs won’t help him, he started spending more time alone, away from the band, Debbie and Annik, his friends and fans.

Curtis poured his soul into his songs. When he was on stage, he gave everything, and people felt it. But those who worked with him demanded more and he could not handle the pressure. The seizures also intensified and eventually completely overwhelmed him. On May 18th, 1980, Curtis hanged himself.

Control is based on Deborah Curtis' book, Touching from a Distance, and is directed by Dutch helmer Anton Corbijn, a fan of Joy Division and their music who moved to England in 1979 to pursue a career as a photographer.

Shot in black and white, Control is hardly the definitive Joy Division film. There is a lot about the band that is not addressed in the film. The focus of attention is primarily on Curtis and his personal life, which rightfully or not Corbijn felt would reveal a lot more about Joy Division and their music.

The balance between style and substance is very good. The long episodes where Curtis is seen going back and forth between Debbie and Annik looking for emotional comfort and the sequences where he is seen trying to come to terms with his medical condition are very effectively enhanced by carefully selected Joy Division songs. As result, it is incredibly easy to understand how the pain and uncertainty in Curtis’ life affected the band’s maturation and their music.

Something else the film makes clear is that Curtis was never good at compromising, which is why he suffered so much. He poured his soul when he performed on stage and was incredibly honest with the two women that loved him, and when things started getting out of control - numerous times he collapsed in front of his fans; his marriage also started falling apart - he simply gave up.

The cast is exceptional. Riley, James Anthony Pearson (Bernard), Joe Anderson (Hooky), and Harry Treadaway (Steve) learned to play the Joy Division songs heard in the film so well that Corbijn did not have to tape the music for any of the live scenes. Riley is also particularly good during the long sequences where Curtis is seen alone contemplating his life.

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe’s lensing is notably elegant. However, Control is not a glitzy, overly sentimental, marred by clichés film. It is a realistic and more importantly very respectful film about a true rock star.

Note: In 2007, Control won Camera d’Or, Prix Regards Jeune, and Label Europa Cinemas Awards at the Cannes Film Festival. A year later, the film also won Carl Foreman Award for Most Promising Newcomer (writer Matt Greenhalgh) at the BAFTA Awards.

Control Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with VC-1 and granted a 1080p transfer, Anton Corbijn's Control arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Momentum Pictures.

The high-definition transfer is not identical to the one Alliance used for their Blu-ray release of Control in Canada - the Canadian high-definition transfer is encoded with MPEG-4 while the UK high-definition transfer is encoded with VC-1. This said, I really could not see any notable differences between the two to mention in this review. There are a couple of scenes that look a tiny bit darker (compare screencapture #1 with screencapture #5 from our review of the Canadian release), but the difference is indeed negligible). Furthermore, the Canadian high-definition transfer is placed on a 50BD disc while the UK high-definition transfer is placed on a 25GB. However, I did not see any serious compression issues on the UK release to report here. Detail, clarity, contrast levels, and color reproduction are all quite impressive. I also did not see any traces of overzealous sharpening or problematic denoising corrections. To sum it all up, this is a solid release that should please English-speaking fans of Control residing in Region-B territories. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Control Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Momentum Pictures have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is great. It certainly won't test the muscles of your audio system, but it will put you right in the middle of the club action and make you feel as if you are on the stage with the rest of the guys from Joy Division. The sound is always well rounded, crisp, and dynamically very attractive. The dialog is stable and clean, but not always easy to follow because some of the accents are quite thick - which is why the English SDH subtitles Momentum Pictures have included are so important, and as far as I am concerned also a good enough reason to enthusiastically recommend this release over the Canadian one.

Control Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - the original UK theatrical trailer for Control. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, PAL).

• Making of - a standard featurette in which director Anton Corbijn explains what expired him to shoot a film about Joy Division. The featurette also contains various interviews with Korda Marshall from Warner Brothers Records, writer Matt Greenhalgh, and actors Sam Riley, James Pearson, Harry Treadaway, and Joe Anderson. In English, not subtitled. (24 min, PAL).

• Performance Scenes - three extended live concert performances from the film.
  
  -- Leaders of Men (3 min, PAL).
  -- Transmission (4 min, PAL).
  -- Candidate (3 min, PAL).

• Commentary - an audio commentary with director Anton Corbijn. In English, not subtitled.

• Music Video - Atmosphere by Joy Division, directed by Anton Corbijn (1988) - (5 min, PAL).

Control Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is a shame that Anton Corbijn's Control, a wonderful and very stylish tribute to the late Ian Curtis, was not released on Blu-ray in the United States. It is also rather strange that it took such a long time for a UK distributor to step up and release the film on Blu-ray, but as they say, better late than never. If you don't yet have Control in your collection, I urge you to consider importing it as soon as possible. In my opinion, it is one of the top 10 British films to be released during the last five years. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.