Day 2 cont: A Division of Joy

Toronto Hydro Wireless is cool and all, but reception inside the Paramount is teh suck, so herewith is a transcription of notes made earlier today.

Joy Division

You should always come out of a documentary having learned something. I came out of this one knowing the inspiration for Elaine Benes's funky dance movies.

A superb documentary on the rise of the Mancunian super-band Joy Division into the stratosphere of new wave music. Alan Cross should be giving his left nut to do something so well.

All-in-all, the film was great - pretty much all the principals of the band (save Curtis's widows) have copious amounts of face time, talking about the formation and existance of the group. Soundtrack was predictably good, presuming you're a Joy Division fan - and if you're not, what are you doing watching the film.

The only thing that got my goat was the director's insane insistence to start head shots out of focus for a second or two before gradually tightening up. I dont know whether he thought his was "arty" and demonstrated his cinematic chops. It was bloody annoying as heck, tho nowhere near Westray levels of annoyance.

The Man From London

Crime movies come in two varieties. The taut and suspenseful kind, and the kind that isnt.

This is one of the latter ones. About 45 minutes too long, as the director (a giant in European cinema, apparently) completely and utterly fell in love with long (5+ minutes long) tracking shots.

Control

Part 2 of today's Joy Division movie extravaganza. Instead of a documentary of the band, this one is a biopic of lead singer Ian Curtis. Directed by Anton Corbijn, and based on a book by Curtis's wife.

Good film, but "suffers" in comparison with the documentary, which I preferred more. Possibly precisely because it was about the band, rather than the lead singer. Visually stunning (go figure, given the director) with a truly excellent performance by Sam Riley as Curtis himself.