Anton Corbijn, world’s most pre-eminent rock photographer and equally famed video clip director, has turned his deft hand to feature film, with his directorial debut, Control. The result is just as you’d expect an Anton Corbijn film to be, both lyrical and full of grit. And beautiful to watch, naturally.

Based on ‘Touching From A Distance’, the book written by Ian Curtis’ widow Debbie, Control charts the emergence and rise of Joy Division, as Curtis and his bandmates struggle to be free of the obscurity of late 1970s industrial Macclesfield, England.

Control is a deeply personal film. Centring largely on Ian and Debbie’s relationship, it also explores the nature of depression and isolation, the repercussions of youth and makes plain what a mindfuck hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time must have been for a bunch of kids living in an industrial wasteland.

Corbijn self financed Control, cast an unknown lead in Sam Riley’s star making portrayal of Curtis, shot it on black and white, and had all the actors play their instruments live. But Corbijn is well acquainted with risk, having left Holland for England as a young man armed with only a camera, in search of his heroes in Joy Division and determined to photograph them. The iconic results and the rest, is of course history. 35 years spent photographing the most talented artists of our time later, and Anton Corbijn has produced with Control, a rare beast: and rock and roll biopic that is both thoughtful and exhilarating at once.

Anton took time out in Sydney to talk about his love of photography, working on Control with New Order and to share some stories about his more famous subjects:

A large part of Control to me, was an exploration fame. What do you think it is about the people you’ve known and worked with since who came to huge success but haven’t succumbed to that destructive nature of it, like Ian Curtis did?

Um, I think the movie is only partially about that. I think that his problems were coming from quite a few different angles, I think. But there’s a lot of people who actually enjoy success. I think Kurt Cobain didn’t enjoy success, he maybe killed himself over it. So that is someone who’s maybe quite similar in that sense (to Ian Curtis). My other friends, like Michael Stipe or Bono, enjoy success. It varies you know. I’m sure that Tom Waits also enjoys success, but he doesn’t want to let it bother him to a degree where he gets stopped on the street. He doesn’t encourage that kind of adulation. I think there’s a big difference between enjoying success and enjoying adulation. That’s usually where the problem lies, I think. For me, anyway. I enjoy if my work is successful, I think it’s brilliant. I want to be myself. But the focus of attention? Not really.

To have been someone so integral for so long in the construction of image, and working from that side of things, how are you finding being the focus of attention as a director?

I’ve done quite a lot of other things too, where I’ve had quite a lot of interviews. This is not the first time – but on this scale, it is definitely the first time. And I think it has a function, so I can deal with it. But my life, the focus of my life, is making things, not really having to talk about them. Also, I see it as a little part of my work at the moment. If I can do my work ok, I think I’m fine.

Control is very beautifully, almost hypnotically paced. As a narrative, it’s beautiful. What are the differences as a director, in fleshing out a story from a video clip to a feature? Do you think looking back, that maybe you treat your videos as tiny films?

Yeah probably, actually. I definitely didn’t approach the film as a large music video! I think all these disciplines, I approach them for what they are. My photography is on its own, my music videos are on their own. But I’ve always been interested in telling people’s stories. So you know, in music videos, there are scenarios that you play out. In that sense, it’s bringing that (clips) slightly closer to films. At the same time, sitting somewhere to two hours, it’s gonna be a very different experience to watching two hours of music videos, even if they’re telling stories.

You paint a quite sympathetic portrait of someone who a lot of people might find a very unsympathetic character – for what he did to Debbie and their child. Do you have an opinion on what he did (committing suicide) that you want to make known?

I don’t think I need to comment on that. I think that through the book, and through research, I have a slightly different picture of Ian than when I met him (in the late 70s Anton shot what became the iconic images of Joy Division). There’s weird elements to his character. That doesn’t make him very sympathetic in certain circumstances. He was definitely controlling – he was controlling in his marriage, controlling in the band – had these elements. Yet he didn’t want to disappoint people, so there’s already that clash within him. The fact that he worked with all those physically handicapped people, and helped them get jobs and that he was very good at that, was a very endearing factor to him. I think he was quite a complex figure. But the way it’s played by Sam Riley I think you still very much feel for him at the end. You do stay, emotionally. You stay with him.

You get vividly reminded of how young they were, Debbie and Ian being just kids who makes these split second decisions, getting married, having a kid.

Yeah, I know.

Your film is so in these details – not that they’re mundane – but the everyday details of their lives coming up against the rise of Joy Division. It’s like your film is so much in the everyday realities, it’s the anti 24 Hour Party People in a way. How were those details of his life translated from Debbie’s book to the screen?

Well the script writer worked with Debbie (Curtis, Ian’s widow and author of Touching From A Distance) I guess to a degree, talked to her and everyone else who was still alive. I did the same once the script was finished. And Debbie was available to talk about the script and answer any questions we had. But there was a line of course, where it became my film and not her film. And also it was clear it was going to be a film about Ian Curtis and not the filming of the book about Debbie Curtis, and that was all agreed. So she was involved in that sense. And I showed her an early edit, but she was not involved in the editing process.

How integral were New Order to the process of making Control?

Obviously there’s the fact that there’s no filmic anything, portrait, of Ian Curtis in existence, and there’s no film of Ian Curtis talking – nothing exists on him. So everything had to be filled in by people who knew him. All we have is live footage, there’s nothing apart from that on Ian Curtis. It really it amazing. So we had to piece it all together, and everyone was really helpful. And of course New Order were there for a long time in the band and they could fill that in, and Debbie could fill us in on the home situation. Annik (Ian Curtis’ girlfriend throughout much of his marriage) in her situation with Ian. So that way we got a more complete picture, and Doreen, Ian’s mother and Carol his sister, talked to us. So we tried to build up a picture of him through all these people, and New Order were quite important for that. They remember a lot of things differently,

I would imagine so, and from three different perspectives.

Yes. And a lot of drugs later. So a lot of years later, it’s a lot different for each of them. “You said that,” “No, YOU said it.” Overall it’s pretty accurate, what we got out of them. And they saw an early cut too, and really loved the film. And they did the score for it and they supported the film. They’ve been to Cannes with us, so that’s brilliant.

In casting the actors, who all played their instruments in the film, how integral was that? Did you cast people with some musical ability from the start? Or did they learn from scratch?

I did ask the actors apart from Sam, even though he was a singer I didn’t ask him because I thought it wasn’t important for the film. I never thought that we were gonna do it live at that point. I never thought we’d find actors who could master their instruments to that point or degree. I didn’t think we’d find actors who’d master it to the point where it looked believable on film. This is quite a difference, you know. They were so adamant to get it right.

It’s so integral and so seamless.

Oh, I know. And James – who plays Bernhard – had never touched a guitar before in his life. So he learned from scratch. You can’t buy actors like that, you just have to find them.

As a director, when you’re drawing performances from people on set, how does that differ from how you’ll get someone to reveal themselves to you when you’re taking their photo?

Well, I think the difference is that an actor is performing. And therefore he has a function when you work with him on a set. There’s lots of people around. You want him to do a certain thing. When I photograph somebody, it’s very much one on one. The person is not acting. So it’s quite different, I think it’s (photography) more naked.

How long will you spend with someone on a shoot? Will you get together beforehand and talk about ideas? Will yo have a whole day with someone, or only five minutes?

Every variation possible, is what’s happening for me. There’s no standard. Some people you meet for a few minutes. Some people you spend a day with. With some people, like Michael Stipe or Bono, I’ve photographed so many times, there’s absolutely no rules.

Do you have a favourite subject or relationship?

To photograph? Obviously there a couple of people I’ve worked with for a very long period of time, and that’s so great. But at the same time it’s challenging to have to photograph Pavarotti, or William Burroughs, or Nelson Mandela, or anybody. I think it’s really exciting. There’s no relationship there, it’s just a one-off time, but equally important to me. There’s sometimes quite a basic curiosity in me, maybe not that different to people reading Hello magazines, apart from the fact that hopefully my curiosity goes a little deeper. But there is curiosity to meeting other people, just to be in their space. And photography is a beautiful excuse. You can spend 20 minutes with somebody, have a cup of tea with them and photograph them. That to me is beautiful. That’s maybe all I need.

Do you have an image of your own which you’re particularly proud of, or that captures something perfectly for you?

I’ve been photographing 35 years. It’s so difficult to choose. There’s also different periods in my work. For every period there’s a picture I feel attached to, either emotionally, or as an achievement.

Or more recently?

Something recent. Let me think of something recently. I’ve been so hard working on the film.

What about now? Do you shoot much of your travels on a publicity tour like this?

No. I’m not sure what I’m searching for at the moment. I do have a camera with me. At the moment I’m always taking pictures of the kids of my friends. I did some nice pictures of Brian Eno in Morocco recently. We were with U2 for a week in Morocco for a shoot, but I don’t know what ends up being used with that.

So you ever get used to the craziness that goes along with being around artists that huge?

The guys from U2 know that if they arrive it generates more publicity than just me on my own. Obviously. They do it because they’re proud of the work we’ve done and they want to show that. Which I’m very grateful to them for.

It’s such a rare thing to have a creative partnership that’s been alive for that long.

Oh yeah. It’s not just rare. It’s unique, it’s a one off. Because it’s 25 years now. It’s unbelievable. It’s an organic thing. It’s just grown like that. You can’t plan these things, whatsoever. And that’s so beautiful about it, because all these things are gifts.

Has anything else ever moved you so much as when you first heard Joy Division?

Yes, but on different levels. I think that when you’re younger, it touches you more deeply because you’re more naïve. And you follow up in a different way, possibly. I would not move countries now because I like the Arcade Fire (laughs.) You know what I mean? It’s different. And of course now the whole music scene is totally different. It’s important at a certain time and part of you life. I’m touched by the paintings of Mark Rothko. It’s different now. But equally, you know, I like looking at things too. I like beautiful buildings, I like nature. There’s a lot to enjoy if you can enjoy things.

Do you remember what went through your young mind when you made that choice to follow your love of the band’s music, and pack up for London?

I was quite fearful I think. That things may go wrong, that I’d made a very stupid decision. Friends of mine in Holland were like, “see you in six months!” I don’t think anybody thought I would survive there. I lived in a squat for a while. But I was always working, I always had something to do – which was lovely. And NME, I became the main photographer very, very quickly. A very quick thing that happened there. And then I met loads of great musicians and travelled. That’s how I met U2 and Depeche Mode. Captain Beefheart. It was a crazy, crazy amount of people and it was very exciting times. I wouldn’t like to do it again, but it was the right time. NME was very important in those days. So there’s a lot of luck involved, I think. Perfect timing. You can’t plan for it, but it was perfect timing.