"Control" trailer isn't up

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Anton Corbijn's Control (Weinstein Co., 10.10), the sad but visually arresting story of doomed Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, is less than eight weeks from opening in this country, and there's still no full-on website to support it. Whassup with that? This is one of the best films of the year so far, and the cost of creating a tight, attractive, professional-level website with all the right bells and whistles is relatively small. If you know how to work it, that is.

Sam Riley in Anton Corbijn's Control.

All the Weinstein Co. has put up is a single information page with a synopsis, a photo of star Sam Riley (who gives one of the year's most arresting lead performances, no question) and a little blah-dee-blah about Curtis and Joy Division and yaddah-yaddah.

The Weinstein site doesn't even feature a link up to this new Control trailer, which is now sitting on a My Space page.

"The mark of any exceptional film is the won't-go-away factor," I wrote just after seeing it last May at the Cannes Film Festival. "A film that doesn't just linger in your head but seems to throb and dance around inside it, gaining a little more every time you re-reflect. This is very much the case with Anton Corbijn's Control, the black-and-white biopic of doomed Joy Division singer Ian Curtis.

"I finally saw Control at a market screening last Wednesday night (5.23) at the Star cineplex, and it's definitely one of the four or five best flicks I've seen at Cannes -- a quiet, somber, immensely authentic-seeming portrayal of a gloomy poet-performer whom I didn't personally relate to at all, but whose story I found affecting anyway.

"Corbijn, a music-video guy, was obviously the maestro, but a significant reason why so much of Control works is newcomer Sam Riley, who portrays Curtis as a guy who was unable to throw off that melancholy weight-of-the-world consciousness that heavy-cat artists always seem to be grappling with. There is no such thing as a gifted writer/painter/poet/sculptor/filmmaker who laughs for the sake of laughing and does a lot of shoulder-shrugging. Everything is personal, and everything hurts deep down. And Riley makes you feel what it's like to be a guy who just can't snap out of it."

Again, check out the new trailer. It's the best one I've seen so far, and I've been looking at Control-related stuff all summer.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 14, 2007 at 4:12 PM

comment #1

starfunker says ...

Corbijn's a brilliant photographer. Can't wait to see this film...and I've already got the Joy Division back in rotation on my iPod.

Posted by starfunker at August 14, 2007 5:23 PM

comment #2

jimjonesiii says ...

sure.
true artists live in depression & dementia.
blonde chicks are dumb.
and latino women have a lot of noisy kids.

Posted by jimjonesiii at August 14, 2007 5:29 PM

comment #3

gruver1 says ...

Wells to jimjonesiii: No, Latino women take their kids to torture-porn films.

Posted by gruver1 at August 14, 2007 5:54 PM

comment #4

p.Vice says ...

This is opening at FILM FORUM in October. That should tell you how far the Weinsteins plan to go with this release.

Posted by p.Vice at August 14, 2007 5:59 PM

comment #5

jimjonesiii says ...

anyway, canÃ‚Â´t wait for the film.
question: "control" doesn`t have a drug-fueled-downward third act right?

Posted by jimjonesiii at August 14, 2007 6:28 PM

comment #6

christian says ...

i'm sad already.

Posted by christian at August 14, 2007 7:02 PM

comment #7

R. Hunt says ...

Given what a botch the Weinsteins made of trying to sell "Factory Girl" (though it didn't help that the film was a mess), I don't see them doing a better job here. It has me worried about "I'm Not There"...

Posted by R. Hunt at August 14, 2007 7:22 PM

comment #8

corey3rd says ...

another Blockbuster Exclusive!

Posted by corey3rd at August 14, 2007 9:11 PM

comment #9

fnt says ...

I like how it's Jeff's job to be Movie Website Police. THIS IS IMPORTANT PEOPLE!

Posted by fnt at August 14, 2007 10:04 PM

comment #10

frankbooth says ...

Does Herzog's dancing chicken make an appearance?

Posted by frankbooth at August 15, 2007 12:09 AM

comment #11

hatchetface says ...

So, fnt: Don't you think Jeff might be right in trying to bring attention to one of his favorite films so far this year? Have you missed all his writing about the mis-handling of Once's marketing?

Here, let me re-phrase it for you: What is your fucking point, dude?

Posted by hatchetface at August 15, 2007 9:00 AM

comment #12

Mike Schaefer says ...

"This is opening at FILM FORUM in October. That should tell you how far the Weinsteins plan to go with this release."

While that makes me suspicious too, Todd Haynes' Dylan movie is also opening at FF -- maybe the folks at Film Forum are just being more agressive about booking buzzed-about films. (Nothing like a line snaking around the block to make your theater appear relevant.)

Posted by Mike Schaefer at August 15, 2007 9:41 AM

comment #13