Whether it was the sunken eyes, hunched posture or something in the Manchester water is difficult to say, but from the minute he set foot onstage with Joy Division in 1977, 20 year old Ian Curtis had the look and manner of an iconic dead rock star. Destiny seemed to cling to him. When he'd spin into an epileptic seizure mid-song it was as though he was trying to fight his fate out of himself, railing against his own rest in peace. It was a battle he couldn't win; he would live just three more years before committing suicide. Control is a stunning biopic of his short life; as minimalist, shadowy and haunting as the band's music, it's a soul-stirring tribute to a troubled, idiosyncratic and misunderstood figure that achieves grave seriousness without ever slipping into sentimentality. Moreover, it's intensely intimate, and appropriately so, for Curtis' suffering was deeply personal. Unlike Sid Vicious, he didn't overdose on a soup of celebrity spoils; unlike Kurt Cobain he wasn't railing against fame. Curtis' problems were domestic, his struggles internal. Control lays this bare. A candid yet elegant tribute, its triumph comes from adopting the mood and manner of Joy Division's music itself. Which other great movies about music belong on this list? Share your favourites below in the comments thread.
