I really wanted to make it a double deuce this year and see both Anton Corbijn’s Control and Grant Gee's documentary Joy Division. Alas, I could not make the latter but I was determined to see at least Joy Division, the comprehensive documentary about one of the bands to emerge in the first wave of post-punk music and lay a foundation for modern music today. I have not been a fan of Joy Division for long. My musical conscious was awoken, in part, by its offspring New Order. But I needed to see Joy Division so I could get a sense and understanding of their place, importance and influence in new music history. I was in need of an education and I needed to know this piece of history, understanding that foundations are important and they need to be honored.
Director Grant Gee interviews most of the key figures starting with the three surviving band members, Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Peter Hook. He also interviews Tony Wilson, founder of Joy Division’s label Factory Records, their producer Martin Hannett, and Annik Honoré, Curtis’s Belgian lover. Anton Corbijn also comments about his photography sessions with the band, including what they say is the most famous photo of Joy Division standing on a bridge laced with snow. Sadly missing from this documentary is Curtis’s wife, Deborah. Gee opted to include quotes from her biography and they appear as text onscreen, haunting and beautiful, they secure her place in this band’s history.
Gee traces the band’s short 4 year history from their formation after a Sex Pistols show in ’76 to Ian Curtis’ tragic suicide in ’80. How they got their name. How they found band members. There is footage of early shows, gigs and television show appearances. Gee also shows a Manchester City in transition, an ugly city that needed to find its pearls once again. He places a lot of emphasis on this as he believes that Joy Division was partly responsible for bring about that change and helping revive the dying city. Gee’s work is nothing if comprehensive and does well to educate, inform and entertain.
And at the end when the credits began to roll we waited, letting Curtis’ vocals wash over us one more time that night. We didn’t move. We waited as if it were the last song the band was playing for their encore. We let the song play out and sufficed that we had paid homage to the tortured soul of Ian Curtis we applauded for the last time. For the music of Joy Division is timeless. Music reviewer Thom Jurek once wrote, "They left just a small bit of music and an echo that still rings."
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