Joy Division (The Miriam Collection) | 
| Director: Grant Gee
Actors: Tony Wilson, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Peter Saville
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Category: DVD
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $16.43
You Save: $6.52 (28%)
New (34) Used (9) from $16.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 2082
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 81027
UPC: 796019810272
EAN: 0796019810272
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, FACTORY SEALED - IN STOCK, READY TO SHIP
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Amazon.com
While Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People took on impresario Tony Wilson and Anton Corbijn's Control concentrated on singer Ian Curtis, Grant Gee's Joy Division opts for non-fiction over biopic. Together, the three films create a multi-dimensional portrait of Manchester in the post-punk era. Curtis's minimalist quartet arose simultaneously as a product of and a reaction to their industrial environment. As Factory Records co-founder Wilson states, "I don't see this as the story of a pop group, I see this as the story of a city that once upon a time was shiny and bold and revolutionary." (Wilson succumbed to cancer shortly afterwards.) Written by Jon Savage (England's Dreaming), the narrative follows the oral history form. Aside from the surviving members of the band, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris (Curtis committed suicide in 1980), other speakers include designer Peter Saville, Curtis's girlfriend Annik Honore, and musician Genesis P. Orridge (Throbbing Gristle). Only Curtis's wife, Deborah, chose not to appear on camera, so Gee (Radiohead: Meeting People Is Easy) uses text from her biography, Touching from a Distance. Loaded with rare audio and visual material, like Joy Division's aborted RCA sessions and manager Rob Gretton's notes, Gee presents the definitive documentary of a timeless band. Unlike Corbijn's stately feature, his stylish tribute ends on a more optimistic note: with the birth of New Order in the 1980s and the re-birth of Manchester in the 2000s. Extra features include 75 minutes of bonus interviews and a BBC performance of "Transmission." --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Description
Joy Division is a "fascinating look at the brief but vital trajectory of a band that died with its troubled frontman, Ian Curtis" (Jason Gargano, Cincinnati CityBeat), only to be reborn as the equally influential New Order. Featuring interviews with all surviving band members, Joy Division explores the Manchester origins of this revolutionary act, their partnership with Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, and collaboration with legendary producer Martin Hannett.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 An Instant Classic September 3, 2008
This rock doc is a masterpiece! If you're a Radiohead fan you may have seen the doc of them titled Meeting People Is Easy, another masterpiece documentary in my opinion done by the same director as this one , Grant Gee. It is also written by a real insider into the Joy Division scene as well, Jon Savage. If you're familiar at all with Joy Division and/or New Order don't even hesitate about viewing this, it interviews everyone connected to the band imaginable with awesomely introspective bits coupled with great performance footage.
Unlike Control, the feature film centered around just the lead singer Ian Curtis, this doc covers all the bases and with style. But even if you're not quite or not at all aware of Joy Division, you will be sucked into this story I guarantee it. Yes the group is and has been immeasurably influential to the music world but the real characters/people who have lived this amazing story translate it grippingly.
an intelligently-done documentary September 1, 2008
As an owner of the Heart And Soul box set, it was enlightening to see this very well done documentary of the band, to learn about the people behind the music. In years past, there seemed to be a kind of instinctive denial of the tragic event of May, 1980, and this dvd dispels that and shows the anguish of the other people affected and sheds more light on the possibilities of why it happened. As far as the music goes, with Joy Division's music there is very little "filler", just about every track packs a punch and you rarely see that in a popular music context.
 A Great Comedy August 17, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
A bunch of guys from Manchester pretending they were the Doors.
Painful for anyone who isn't a fan.
Best Joy Division Film out of the Three August 6, 2008
Between "24 Hour Party People," Anton Corbijn's feature "Control," and Grant Gee's documentary "Joy Division," I think Gee's docu is the best. "24 Hour" sets the stage, delineating the context of Madchester in the early 80s and Tony Wilson's patronage as the Medici of the Northwest, discovering Joy Division/New Order. It's the most fun.
Grant Gee's "Joy Division" is informative and rich, with a lot more to give than the very limited feature "Control." The documentary focuses on outstanding faces, in crisp black and white, filtered through Final Cut Pro - it's a tasty, original and restrained blend of a music video and straight-up talking head interviews. As each new speaker is introduced, Gee brings up his or her face in soft focus behind their name-title. As the name fades from the screen and they begin to talk, the face snaps into focus.
The personalities are priceless - the surviving members of the band are honest and bare-faced, not "rockstar" at all, never mind that as the ultra-hip New Order they had the best-selling 12" single in history with "Blue Monday." They're fabulous to watch and listen to. The historic footage of Ian Curtis shows us his sculpted white-marble features, the full mouth of Michelangelo's David, punctuated by icy blue eyes - someone in the film says his eyes were "translucent." One in a million, that face.
Annik Honore, Ian Curtis's Belgian girlfriend, is articulate and open, glamorous and ethereally beautiful. If she broke up his marriage, one of the catalysts of Curtis's final breakdown, it's easy to understand her pull on him. Curtis's wife Deborah does not appear on screen, though her writing does.
Producer Martin Harnett, caricatured in "24 Hour Party People" by Andy Serkis (the voice of Gollum in "Lord of the Rings") as a nasty, portly drunk, is slender and wiry in the historic footage, very on. He was a co-developer of the AMS digital delay box, which he used for Joy Division's distinctive drum sound. It's not just the funky off-beats that the drummer employed - it's that instant spatial reverb SOUND that's such a sharp turn away from Punk. That's the real Harnett, not the cartoon version.
Peter Saville, Factory Records' graphic designer, looks more like a glamorous British actor than anyone has the right to, and has the resonant voice as well - his contribution was to put a brand-new graphical Modern look on what became Post Punk - a new direction just as the music took a new turn, evolving with Joy Division through New Order.
Saville's girlfriend at the time was Martha Ladly, the lanky blonde Canadian who was one of the two Marthas in Toronto's Martha and the Muffins. After leaving the Muffins and moving to England, she sang backup for the Associates on their masterpiece "Sulk" album. She appears in the Associates videos of the time, too, a foot taller than all the wee Scotsmen. It's her painting that Saville put on New Order's "1981 - Factus 8 - 1982" EP. Ladly was in charge of Peter Gabriel's groundbreaking Internet music efforts in the 1990s. Ian Curtis - New Order - Tony Wilson - Peter Saville - Martha Ladly: these people are gods.
 what's needed August 3, 2008
attention,please.let's all agree this film is an important document and is certainly worth all the kind words offered so far.the next step is to urge the owner of the video of the plan k gig (mister nicholson of ikon&?)(the photographer,monsieur michel?)to release the entire concert on DVD for worldwide distribution.i'm sure questions of copyright and other legal niceties can certainly be surmounted.since a miniscule number of fans actually saw the lads in concert(and since the brussels one-off is possibly the only film extant other than the footage shot by mister boon)wouldn't it be great to have something everyone could appreciate for years to come-a consummately rocky band at the absolute top of its game at a prestige venue?
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