(Weinstein Company)
Anton Corbijn is best known as a photographer whose supersaturated black-and-white aesthetic has provided the creative direction for bands like U2 and
VH1: How involved in the film were the real people in the story -- the band, Curtis' wife Debbie? Anton Corbijn: Debbie was very involved. Her book was the basis of the film. But this movie is the story of Ian Curtis, and the book is her story. So I wanted to make that distinction very clear. I needed to talk to Annick [Honore, Curtis' mistress], because it was important to get as objective a story as possible. I met with New Order [formed by the three remaining members of Joy Division following Curtis' suicide] all individually, showed them the script, and took their comments. I showed them it in November of last year. They all liked it. Actually, they loved it, which was great, because they used to argue about everything and they all agreed on this. Debbie and Annick both saw the film, too, well before release. They both OK'd it. I don't think they're ecstatic about it because there's still a lot of emotion there. But that they're both OK with it, that's good enough for me. VH1: How does Joy Division's legacy resonate today? AC: First of all, it's not a film about Joy Division. It's a film about Ian Curtis, who became the singer of Joy Division. There's an element of the film that deals with the band, but if I was making a film about Joy Division, I would have made a very different movie. I made a film about following this boy from the ages of 17 to 23 who develops a serious disease. There's an epic love story in there, too, so it's quite universal. The themes are. A lot of young people growing up today seem to know about Joy Division. I don't know how they discovered them, but many young artists -- Arcade Fire, Interpol, Editors -- name-check Joy Division. I suspect that their talking about Joy Division influences them. VH1: Why did you make a feature film instead of a documentary? AC: Basically, I wanted to make a real film. Also, those days, back in the '70s, very little of normal life was documented in the way it is now. It's not like celebrity life these days, where everything is documented by magazines and television from the moment it happens. There's no mystery anymore. Back then, there was very little of that, especially when you were dealing with a band that didn't sell many records. So there's nothing we could find on film from the life of Ian Curtis, apart from some badly shot live footage. But there's no interview footage of him. If you wanted to make a documentary about him, it would be quite difficult. VH1: Did you find that the film brought you to a deeper examination of your own life? AC: To a degree. My memory isn't that great, which is why I take pictures for a living. But yes, in late '79 I moved to London after listening to a Joy Division album. I met with them and photographed them, and then they became quite well known. But at the same time, as those pictures suggest, I had a very deep relationship with [the music of] Joy Division, even though I only had about 10 minutes to take their pictures. I don't remember what the band said, but I remember coming to England from the Netherlands -- which has a good social system, so I was unprepared for the kind of poverty I'd see in the U.K., especially in the north of England. I recall it being very bleak, very grey. The movie, in black-and-white, was shot that way because that's the way I remember it. VH1: What do you feel contributed to end Ian Curtis' life? AC: I think the epilepsy was the reason, especially the side effects of the drugs he was taking at the time. Epilepsy wasn't very well researched at the time. So the drugs gave him terrible mood swings, and combined with alcohol, I think he climbed into a hole he couldn't get out of. Then I think he felt the responsibility of carrying the band to America -- when he could barely get on stage at the time -- not to mention all his marital problems, and the problems with his girlfriend . . . it all took on far greater proportions as his troubles built up, one on top of the other. |
