If you enjoy Shakspeare's stories of tormented love then you'll love Anton Corbijn's 2007 film Control, which I saw for the first time last night. Sam Riley plays Ian Curtis, the frontman for awesome 1970's/80's post-punk band Joy Division (and the most tragic dude you'll ever meet).
Curtis' relationship with mistress Annik Honore reminded me so much of Antony and Cleopatra. Both Antony and Curtis get messed up by their extra-marital affairs, and both turn to suicide. Cleopatra imagines her relationship with Antony to exist in vivid, dynamic form even after their deaths. Curtis and Honore's intense relationship is indeed mythic, the subject of fascination for Joy Division fans.
"Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor
But was a race of heaven."(Antony and Cleopatra, 1.3.36-8)
Here's the thing that gave me goosebumps. The actors playing Curtis and Honore, Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara, actually fell in love during the shoot and got married! So now it's like, Curtis and Honore's love did survive death! This is them in a past life. Or is it them today?
Wicked cool. I wanted to see this when it came out, but missed it; we'll have to check it out. I'm all about A & C myself these days - we saw a great one while we were in Oxford - it never fails to repay repeated readings/viewings!
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