Tag Archive: Anton Corbijn


DO THE AMERICAN

Clooney gets his girl and keeps his clothes on.

With the Ian Curtis biopic Control, Anton Corbijn made a very smooth switch from photographer to filmmaker and shows with his follow-up movie ,The American, that this was no one-off.

The film may be a star vehicle for George Clooney ,but it also  a tight and tense Zen thriller which is not afraid to maintain a slow pace.

Clooney (Edward/Mr. Butterfly) plays a hit-man and gun expert who works for a shady organisation. He is pursued by Swedes and is holed up in a sleepy Italian town.

Clooney looks immaculate throughout – Who washes and irons his clothes? How come his suit is so perfectly pressed?  We need to be told.

His employers are not named but could easily be called Designer Assassins Inc. (D.A.) with a suitable advertising slogan being ‘Need someone dead? Come to D.A. and get your killing done in style’. Continue reading

FAREWELL CAPTAIN

Deeply saddened to learn that DonVan Vliet – Captain Beefheart – has died at the age of 69.

He was one of the true geniuses of rock.

All his albums are essential but Trout Mask Replica was his masterpiece and 41 years after it was released it remains as bewilderingly original and subversive as ever.

He was an artist  who never compromised. He gave few interviews and preferred to let his work speak for itself.

He retired from music in 1982 when he felt he had no more to offer and devoted himself to his painting.  After he made this decision there was never any hint that he might make a comeback, although he must have had many offers to do so.

His legacy will live on as a true inspiration for artists who strive to make music that means something more than massaging the ego or pandering to mainstream taste.

Photo of Beefheart by Anton Corbijn.

Control and Ian Curtis

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis

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. Continue reading