Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Biopic [feature], Gay & Lesbian Films  |   Release Date - Oct 7, 1998 (USA - Limited)  |   Run Time - 91 min.  |   Countries - France, United Kingdom, Japan, United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Bhob Stewart

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.

Characteristics

Keywords

artist, homosexual, painting, sadomasochism, suicide, criminal

Attributes

High Production Values