Joy Division

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Grant Gee directs. Jerry Chater cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 17 years ago.
• 2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 3Editor Jerry Chater shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 4Anton Corbijn and Kevin Cummins and Richard Boon carry the top of the cast.
• 5IMDB entry: tt1097239 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 6Only 58 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Editing

Jerry Chater

Runtime

100 min · 1h 40m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Joy Division (2009) ↗

Also by

Grant Gee

• 
  blur | The Best Of

  2000 · ★ 8.3
• 
  7 Television Commercials

  1998 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Gorillaz: Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House

  2006 · ★ 7.6
• 
  Meeting People Is Easy

  1998 · ★ 7.5
• 
  Patience (After Sebald)

  2012 · ★ 6.4
• 
  Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse

  2001 · ★ 6.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2015-03-01
  ★ 8/10

  In the shadowplay acting out your own death knowing no more. Joy Division, the mercurial Manchester based masters of dark post punk sounds, who in Ian Curtis had one of the eras most tortured souls. Directed by Grant Gee and written by Jon Savage, this documentary actually brings nothing new to the table for hardened fans of the band, of which I am unashamedly amongst that number. There is a tendency with musical documentaries to be over praised by fans simply because, well, they just love to see their idols/heroes/inspirations up there on the screen. Grant Gee's film has strong merits as an introduction for those new to the band, for the curious and to those hypnotised by tunes so hauntingly poetic they can reduce you to tears, but again for those who have followed Joy Division and their subsequent brotherhood band, New Order, there is nothing to be learned here. The absence of Deborah Curtis (Ian's widow) from the doc is annoying, where we are only given printed quotes from her. One can only guess that she refused to be sharing screen space with her love rival, and fellow tormentor of Ian Curtis' psyche, Annik Honoré, the latter of which who is more than happy to fuel the documentary fire. At times this feels like a copy of Anton Corbijn's superb film, Control, only with the real life band members and entourage commenting from the edges of the frame. But then there is of course the live excerpts of the band, which lifts this up to the high levels set by Control and Deborah Curtis' excellent book, Touching from a Distance. In that, there is the crux, Joy Division the film is essential for fans, to see that performance of Shadowplay and etc etc, it's these moments that make us forgive the narrative, which quite frankly, is a bit of a cash cow cash in. And I really do say that with heavy heart. 8/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• HU

  Hudson Productions

  GB

• BR

  Brown Owl Films

Key crew

• CinematographyGrant Gee
• EditorJerry Chater

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• joy division

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2007-09-07R· Toronto Int'l Film Festival