'Control'-ling director Anton Corbijn (L) with Mark Romanek Thursday night (Photo courtesy PatrickMcMullan.com

OK, so last night's big NYC film event was officially called the DKNY Jeans Presents Directors Label Launch--kind of an alcohol-fueled prelude to next week's big Lincoln Center music-video chatfest featuring filmmakers Anton Corbijn, Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Stephane Sednaoui and Michel Gondry. All but Glazer attended the West Side's wall-to-wall blowout, where Chris Rock, Chris Martin and Helena Christensen also dropped by for a bit of arty, deafening fun.

But The Reeler's attention focused squarely on Corbijn, whose photography and video work featuring Depeche Mode, Nirvana, U2 and scores of others all the way back to Joy Division is etched forever into the minds of an entire generation of suburban American geeks. Including mine. And now that his and his colleagues' work is to be showcased on Palm Pictures' swank Directors Label DVD's, I had to ask how he narrows a 30-year career down to a specific selection of videos and shorts.

"I approach it as an artist," Corbijn told me. "You start with your humble beginnings and move up to the level you're at now--whatever that level is. I wanted to show my very first ones so you can see how it all changes. The development of the artist. You know, you always make some that you never want to see again."

Yeah, well, your video for "Atmosphere" changed my life. It is good to see that on there.

"Oh, really? Thanks. I always thought nobody ever saw it."

Speaking of Joy Division, I checked in on the progress of Corbijn's planned Ian Curtis biopic Control, which fans have been anticipating for, like, ever.

"Slow," Corbijn said, shaking his head.

But why?

"Well, it's a very different animal than I have ever been in touch with," he said, referring to his first attempt at feature filmmaking. "It's very hard to grab it with both hands when it moves away from you. It is going forward, but it moves."

Corbijn added that Curtis' former bandmates in New Order are staying out of the development process, although they have offered their full support and even a few new songs for the project.

Minutes later, across the room, The Reeler was stunned to discover the iconic cinematographer Christopher Doyle dancing with friends, beer in hand.

"It's family night!" he told me, smiling. "We've got Mickey (Gondry) here, Anton--they're all family." Now that he has finally broken free from Wong Kar-Wai's exacting shackles, might he soon try his hand music video filmmaking himself?

"No. I'm too busy making feature films," he replied before clarifying: "It's possible. I don't know. I just think that the engagement of a feature film is much more? what's the word? Evocative or organic. I'd rather just spend a longer time with more people."

In fact, one of those people could be Corbijn himself, with whom Doyle said he was discussing working on "a feature." He would not disclose if he planned to work on Control, but hey--you do the math. I still cannot even hear myself think.