ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

IF LAST YEAR’S critically admired Ian Curtis biography Control left you eager for a better understanding of his band and their influence on British culture then Joy Division is a film that must be seen. A collage of interviews and memories, it has an attention to detail and a depth of knowledge that is far superior to the average music documentary.

It is almost thirty years since Ian Curtis committed suicide. He was just 23 and expected to become a music icon on a par with David Bowie or Lou Reed. His lyrics had an intensity of feeling and maturity that belied his youth. His distinctive, trance-like performance style with arms chopping through the air like a demented windmill made him an unforgettable presence.

Grant Gee’s thoughtful, poetic documentary charts the formation and rise of Joy Division through the sometimes defensive, guilt-ridden and always insightful anecdotes of band members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris.

We hear from Curtis’s girlfriend Annik Honore and the words of Deborah Curtis appear on the screen although she herself is not interviewed and does not appear.

The film’s depth comes from its ability to link the story of Joy Division with the rise of the Manchester music scene, a lyrical sense of the city’s past and present where so many of the key locations from the Joy Division story no longer exist.

It also helps to place the band’s position in the chaotic whirlwind unleashed in Britain by the arrival of punk and the opposition to Thatcherism. A compact, perennially fascinating film, Joy Division is likely to stand as the definitive account of the band and its legacy.

Selected nationwide release

Director: Grant Gee
Interviews: Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Anik Honore, Anton Corbijn, Tony Wilson
Screenwriter: Jon Savage
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2007

© Allan Hunter, 2008