• Friday, August 09, 2002

• Country:

  USA

• Language:

  English

• Runtime:

  117 min

2002

Manchester 1976: Cambridge educated Tony Wilson, Granada TV presenter, is at a Sex Pistols gig. Totally inspired by this pivotal moment in music history, he and his friends set up a record label, Factory Records, signing first Joy Division (who go on to become New Order) then James and the Happy Mondays, who all become seminal artists of their time.

What ensues is a tale of music, sex, drugs, larger-than-life characters, and the birth of one of the most famous dance clubs in the world, The Hacienda - a mecca for clubbers as famous as the likes of Studio 54. Graphically depicting the music and dance heritage of Manchester from the late 70's to the early 90's, this comedy documents the vibrancy that made Mad-chester the place in the world that you would most like to be.

Goofs

• Anachronisms: In nearly every scene when Tony Wilson is in his car you can see items that were not around in the 1970-80s. Including digital satellite dishes and new style cars/buses and vans.
• Continuity: In the opening hang-gliding sequence, the design on the glider changes between close-ups and long shots (the long shots are of Tony Wilson himself during the actual event that is being portrayed).
• Factual errors: At the Sex Pistols concert, Tony Wilson identifies one of the groups there as "Stiff Kittens, later Warsaw, later Joy Division, and finally New Order". The band never officially went by the name Stiff Kittens; they did allow it to be used on a poster for a show because they didn't have any other name they could use, but the first official name for that particular band was Warsaw.
• Anachronisms: When New order is writing Blue Monday (which was first performed November 1982), the synthesizer on the left is an AKAI 7000. This model was not sold until 1986.
• Crew or equipment visible: Crew members reflected in the door in the Ian Curtis's funeral.
• Factual errors: Ian Curtis hanged himself in his kitchen. However, the film suggests that he hanged himself in the den while watching television.
• Anachronisms: Yamaha NS10 studio monitors/speakers are clearly seen when camera is panning around studio as Joy Division are recording. These monitors weren't available until 1987.
• Factual errors: Ian Curtis' first epileptic seizure did not occur onstage, as in the film, but in the car on the way home from a Joy Division gig. It is also shown as occurring after the band composed 'She's Lost Control', a song that reflected upon Curtis' disease.
• Anachronisms: In the scene when Tony Wilson is driving away from his first wife at Manchester Piccadilly Station, a late 90's Fiat Bravia can be seen behind his "1980" taxed Peugeot.
• Factual errors: According to Tony Wilson on the DVD commentary, there were never any gold discs in the Factory office. Wilson objected but by this stage it was too late to remove them due to continuity problems.

Taglines

• The unbelievably true story of one man, one movement, the music and madness that was Manchester.

Trivias

• The original Hacienda club was demolished in Autumn 2000, three years after its closure; so, based mainly on people's memory, a replica was built in a disused warehouse. Many of the accessories from the club were bought at auction when the club was closed and are used in the movie. The Hacienda has since been replaced by luxury apartments, also called Hacienda.
• Ralf Little plays Peter Hook in the film. Caroline Aherne, the writer of "The Royle Family" (1998), which Little also stars in, was once married to Hook.
• Scriptwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce used to write for "Coronation Street" (1960). Many actors from the movie have appeared in Coronation Street at one time or another, including: Danny Cunningham, Nigel Pivaro, Peter Kay, Martin Hancock, Naomi Radcliffe, Margi Clarke, Kieran O'Brien and Fiona Allen.
• Joy Division and New Order bass player, Peter Hook, was meant to have a cameo role in the film, playing a man who crashes his car after being hit by poisoned pigeons. Unfortunately, on the morning of the shoot, the film makers realized that they had no insurance for "real" musicians.
• The opening scene, in which Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan) goes hang-gliding for an item on his regional Granada news program, really happened. Furthermore, original Granada footage, showing the real Tony Wilson in some distress, has been spliced into this scene.
• The character Charles is a composite character based on many Granada producers. The name Charles was chosen in honor of Charles Sturridge, out of whose apartment Factory Records was run.
• The exterior Hacienda scenes were faithfully shot at the correct location, i.e. the corner of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street in central Manchester. The Happy Mondays' video shoot scene with the children was shot at The Ritz, another nightclub on Whitworth Street West. The interior scenes for the Factory nights in the first half of the film were shot at Jilly's (formerly Rockworld), a nightclub around the corner on Oxford Road.
• Peter Hook from New Order described the film as "A film about the biggest c**t in Manchester, played by the second biggest".
• Following the film's release, Tony Wilson had to apologize to Mick Hucknall for the two comments made in the film about him.
• In an interview with Q magazine in the April 2003 issue, a reader asked Mick Hucknall his view to the comment about the insult on him at the end. Hucknall retorted that "Steve Coogan plays 'Alan Partridge' well because he is Alan Partridge in real life".

Awards

1. British Independent Film Award
   Event: British Independent Film Awards
   Result: Won
   Category: Best Technical Achievement
   Recipient(s): Mark Tildesley
2. ALFS Award
   Event: London Critics Circle Film Awards
   Result: Nominated
   Category: British Supporting Actress of the Year
   Recipient(s): Shirley Henderson
3. Golden Satellite Award
   Event: Satellite Awards
   Result: Nominated
   Category: Best Original Score
   Recipient(s): Liz Gallacher