On 4 June 1976, the Sex Pistols played to a crowd of about 40 people at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. Legend suggests all those in attendance were so invigorated by the ultra-minimal punk blast, that each one immediately formed a band. Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner were there. Two years later the band they formed played their first gig as Joy Division. Two years after that, on the verge of their first US tour, their singer Ian Curtis hanged himself. Shown as part of the recent Belfast Film Festival, Grant Gee's documentary on the band is a stunning guide to one of the most celebrated and mysterious British bands of the 20th century. Featuring contributions from the late Factory boss Tony Wilson and Annik Honoré - Curtis's Belgian mistress - the film is a moving, funny and often startling account of the bands beginnings under the crumbling greyness of 1970's Manchester, to their brutally abrupt and tragic end. Gee - who also directed the 1999 Radiohead film Meeting People Is Easy - uses an arresting visual style to recreate the visceral, pulsating fervour of Joy Division - who remain one of the few timeless bands in pop history. Ian Curtis was never interviewed on screen during his lifetime, adding to the mystery of a mild-mannered young man, crippled by guilt over his infidelity and haunted by his worsening epilepsy. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment of the film is an audio clip of Sumner attempting to help Curtis get to the bottom of his anguish with a spot of hypnotic regression therapy. It is at once both eerie and deeply touching. Joy Division is scheduled for release throughout the UK on 2 May. (NS)
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