Lord of the Fans

Control – Film Review.

I have a confession to make. Although I have been quite a big fan of Joy Division for a great many years, I have only just got round to watching, ‘Control’… Why I did not go to see it when it was first released I am not entirely sure; and when it came out on DVD it just became another one of those films that ‘I must get round to watching’.

Well, after finally getting to see ‘Control’ I was very, very impressed. I could tell within the first five minutes that it was going to be good because so many elements were right. The casting is superb, with Sam Riley putting in an excellent performance as Ian Curtis. There are some great bits of photography and watching the ‘Ian Curtis’ performing the songs was eerily authentic to say the least.

Anton Corbijn has done a truly magnificent job of transferring Deborah Curtis’ book (‘Touching From a Distance’) onto the screen. Filming it all in black and white was definitely the right thing to do; I just cannot imagine it have being filmed in colour. Some shots of the band are strongly reminiscent of old monochromatic Joy Division publicity shots.

As a film, I cannot fault ‘Control’. Any Joy Division fans will find it to be accurate, informative and thought-provoking. However, I do have a problem with Ian Curtis… He just comes across as being such a very selfish individual. I remember thinking exactly the same thing after reading the book years ago. There are (unfortunately) plenty of men who are so insensitive towards their wives and I was so disappointed to learn that Ian Curtis was one of them. However, this is just a case of me being disappointed to find that one of my idols was not a particularly nice person.

Hopefully, both the book and the film are completely wrong about that.

By the way, tune in next time for who I saw getting vaser lipo London for their next movie…

Great British Comedies

Over the last few decades, there have been some truly great British comedies. The hallmarks of British comedy are much different to those of American comedies in general. Whereas in America, the objective is to get a laugh or a joke in every twenty seconds or so, in Britain, the comedy is far more subtle. Using dry humour and wit are considered the correct things to do, although we do have our fair share of American style sit-coms too.

Some of the best examples of British comedy are listed below. If you have not seen them before, then make sure you check them out, they are timeless classics and I defy anyone to find them anything but hilarious. If you have seen them, it seems it is time to take them out of your self storage and watch them again.

Blackadder – We are starting with perhaps the best British comedy of all time. Blackadder follows the lives of different Edmund Blackadders (of the same family tree) through four series, each of which show Blackadder in different historical eras. Although the first series was rather poor, the second third and fourth were comedy gold.

The Office – Created by Ricky Gervais at the turn of the millennium, The Office is a mockumentary that shows the everyday life of people working for a paper company in Slough. Whilst the setting sounds drab and uninteresting, it is the cringeworthy boss and his misfit employees that provide some of comedy’s greatest moments.

I’m Alan Partridge – Steve Coogan is one of Britain’s best comedians and comedy writers and his best moments are contained within the two series of I’m Alan Partridge. The story follows failed TV show host Alan Partridge as he tries to get his somewhat pathetic life back on track. Obnoxious, full of himself and ignorant, Alan is a difficult man to get on with and his interactions with the general public provide the series’best moments.