joy division

I saw a great documental about Joy Division yesterday, total blast. Some parts were so good, tecnically and the way it was edited and the layout itself was very cool - I really liked it. There was some things I especially loved - for example after the other members of the band talked about how Ian died, someone of them just said: now this is the part were the story should end, after him and everything...but we wont stop here and the movie ended with facts about existing members and their band New Order and even if the last dull shots of Manchester were bad ones, I still liked the movie because all the material they had, and its not much, was put together in a very nice way with a very cool style that totally fitted to the whole theme. Besides that the members and others who were interviewed talked about many interesting things about punk and social life during these days, it would of been a interesting movie to a non-fan too, which I think is a very important point when making a documentary about something. Arty side 100% cool almost most of the time in the movie and very interesting, it was a boner. Not to mention the band or music or the charismatic Ian as the movie has a very powerful sentimental meaning - Joy Division’s story is also the tale of Ian Curtis’ self-destruction. Many thought he was on drungs while on stage because of his funny way of dancing and crazy singing, but no! He was literally in a trance, which as the pressure of stardom climbed eventually developed to very strong form of epilepsy. Blaming himself for holding back the band’s meteoric rise, he killed himself in May 1980 24 hours before going to the tour in USA. The director of the documentary -Grant Gee reckons the story of Joy Division is the story of Manchester, which is also one of the reasons why shots of the new Manchester are in the end to sum up the movie. The city invented the industrial revolution, but by the 1970s it had become a bleak concrete modernist blockhouse. As one band member says, “I was 9 years old before I saw a tree.” Thatcher was the political first lady and punk was in the air as the rebellion of music going underground. Joy Division’s melancholic sound channelled the very essence of the city.The selection and editing of archival footage is brilliant, starting with Joy Division’s punk origins and their rise through Manchester’s underground music scene. The director visits the locations of long-gone nightclubs and captions the shot of the current building “Things which aren’t there.” He uses all the material he has and in a great manner. The blurry picture of them on the bridge is one of the most famous pictures of them all times made by Kevin Cummins, who also talkes about the fotosession in the movie. A movie-must to see for everybody from Joy Division fans to people interested in cinematofraphy.