The brief, ill fated life of Ian Curtis is a tale of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll but a far cry from the hedonistic excess we associate with this lifestyle option.
The sex is either of a joyless marital or guilty extra-marital variety.
The drugs are on prescription to contain Curtis’ epilepsy with a shopping list of debilitating side effects.
The ‘rock’n’roll’ is bleak and doom laden.
Curtis was supposed to have been something of a prankster but he is no practical joker in Anton Corbijn’s biopic. Sam Riley accurately captures Curtis’ manic mannerisms on stage and gawky awkwardness of a sullen young man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Samantha Morton who was brilliant as Morvern Callar is equally amazing here as Curtis’ wife – managing to look dowdy while still eliciting our sympathy for what she had to endure. Only Craig Parkinson’s overly foppish depiction of Tony Wilson looks out of place.
With videos and concert clips now available at the click of a mouse it’s easy to forget how many of the key punk and post-punk bands between 1976-1980 had to be seen live or caught on short lived ‘alternative’ TV shows. I recall that when I first heard Joy Division on the John Peel show, Curtis was already dead. I remember that aside from the music mag photos my only visual image of them was seeing grainy shots of them performing Shadowplay on a video screen at London’s ICA. The enigma and mystery surrounding the group conjured up on those anonymous Factory record sleeves could easily be maintained in such circumstances.
Anton Corbijn’s movie now gives Joy Division a visual presence they never had in their three year existence. Using the iconic black and white imagery that makes his still photography so memorable, he perfectly captures the greyness of Macclesfield and the unglamorous drabness of their Manchester roots.
The received opinion is that Ian Curtis took his life when the band were on the brink of stardom. On the following day they were due to travel to America for a three week tour of East and West Coast venues and they had just recorded the single ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and their monumental second full length album ‘Closer’.
Yet, had Curtis lived it’s hard to see how his fragile, angst-ridden image would have wowed the U.S. and equally, it’s hard to see how the band could have continued making songs of existential despair without becoming a parody of themselves.
They captured a point in time and we should be thankful for their legacy – two breathtaking albums, a handful of timeless singles and ,now, a movie that does them justice.
