Joy Division

Joy Division, the documentary by Jon Savage, is a good companion piece to Control, which is essentially the fictionalized version of the same story. It has all the talking heads of people who were relevant to the rise and fall of Joy Division as well as live performances and various other artifacts.  I was surprised to see that several scenes that I thought were embellished from the film were actual occurrences, like the time that Bernard Summer hypnotized Ian Curtis to see if he had experienced any previous lives for example. The film is a more artistic rendering of the same story, but both examples are compelling in their own rights.  However, I would have to say that the documentary is probably more for serious fans, whereas the film version can be appreciated for the cinematography and dramatized aspect of the short, intense life of Ian Curtis.