Love Is the Devil
This British biographical drama probes the life of painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992), critically acclaimed as the outstanding British painter of the latter half of the 20th Century. This unsympathetic portrait of Bacon (Derek Jacobi) begins when George Dyer (Daniel Craig), a small-time criminal from working-class East End environs, drops through a skylight to rob Bacon's studio -- and is ordered into bed by Bacon. The two become a familiar couple at Bacon's hangout, the Colony Room in Soho. Bacon's sexual interests lean toward S&M, but as the cruel Bacon loses interest in Dyer and begins to look elsewhere, the couple splits. Left to his own devices, Dyer turns to drugs and alcohol -- and a tragic suicide. Visual grotesqueries and a trancelike Ryuichi Sakamoto music score capture the essence of Bacon's work (although paintings by Bacon are not seen onscreen here). The film is told in the form of a flashback from Bacon's successful 1971 retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris to a period in the mid-'60s. Bacon biographer Daniel Farson (The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon) served as consultant on the film. more..
Director: John Maybury
Starring: Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton, Anne Lambton, Adrian Scarborough
No reviews
Art Fiction: Best Cinematography
Art Film Festival (1999)
John Maybury
Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (1999)
Derek Jacobi
Edinburgh International Film Festival (1998)
Best Actor
Evening Standard British Film Awards (1999)
Best Cinematography
Fantasporto (1999)
No lists