Joy Division (2007)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Grant Gee

Writer:

Jon Savage (writer)

Release Date:

2 May 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

A chronological account of the influential late 1970s English rock band. |

Plot Keywords:

Band | Singer | Manchester England | Bi Polar | New Wave Music

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Richard Boon	...	Himself
Anton Corbijn	...	Himself
Kevin Cummins	...	Himself
Ian Curtis	...	Himself (archive footage)
Bob Dickinson	...	Himself
Lesley Gilbert	...	Herself
Iain Gray	...	Himself
Rob Gretton	...	Himself (archive footage)
Martin Hannett	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alan Hempsall	...	Himself - Crispy Ambulance singer
Annik Honoré	...	Herself
Peter Hook	...	Himself
Joy Division	...	Themselves (archive footage)
Richard H. Kirk	...	Himself
Terry Mason	...	Himself - Joy Division roadie
Paul Morley	...	Himself
Stephen Morris	...	Himself
Liz Naylor	...	Herself
John Peel	...	Himself (archive footage)
Genesis P-Orridge	...	Himself (as Genesis P. Orridge)
Lindsay Reade	...	Herself
Peter Saville	...	Himself
Richard Searling	...	Himself
Pete Shelley	...	Himself
Bernard Sumner	...	Himself
Malcolm Whitehead	...	Himself
Tony Wilson	...	Himself
Jon Wozencroft	...	Himself

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

Canada:93 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Canada:14A | Australia:M | Finland:K-3 | USA:R | Ireland:15A

Company:

Hudson Productions

Soundtrack:

Autosuggestion

Very good music documentary: simple, bleak and great info

This is a quite beautiful, intrinsic and simply made documentary about the band Joy Division, and about Manchester's youths during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a few lads congregated, learned their instruments and put together their landmark mal de vivre with the help of Martin Hammett in the shape of "Unknown Pleasures", the life of the group is both professional and private. Ian Curtis' life is high- lighted, and still not dissected from the view-point of Deborah Curtis. Annik Honoré, Curtis' lover, is interviewed, as is a bunch of Manc people, e.g. the members of Joy Division, Richard Boon, Kevin Cummins, Paul Morley, Genesis P. Orridge. They're not there to be name-dropped, but all bring good info to the table. Very little of what's found in this documentary is filler. There is bootleg video included, a piece of a conversation between Curtis in hypnosis and Bernard Sumner, filmed scrawls from Rob Gretton's note-book. All in all, a quite precious film, laying bare the landscape that was the preface, basis and aftermath of Joy Division. A very good music documentary indeed.